I met Amie in 10th grade. She was beautiful. She was tall with brown hair and big brown eyes…and smart. She was in all advanced classes, like me. I was short, skinny and my looks were only average. Also, I was still prepubescent. So I had no reason to think she would have much to do with me. But, thanks to detention one Thursday, we became friends.

She was there ahead of me, so I walked in and sat across the table from her. I couldn’t help but notice her earrings.
So, I spoke up. “Nice earrings”.

“Yeah,” She said, “want to borrow them sometime.

She saw the hurt in my eyes.

“Oh, no!” She quickly said, “I didn’t mean to be rude. It’s just that so many boys in school wear earrings these days. You’re cute, too. I think these earrings would look nice on you. You don’t have pierced ears, do you?”

“No”, My face was bright red by now.

“Your hair is long. A little styling….” She stopped and thought. “Yes”.

“Yes…what?”

“Sit at the table Monday with my friends and me. OK?”

“Sure," I said with possibly a little too much enthusiasm.

“Would you like to come by my house and hang out when we get out of here?”

“OK”.

Amie lived in a mansion. Her dad was a surgeon and made more money than just about anyone else in town. I couldn’t believe I was actually going to go in it.

But, detention ended and we headed to her dad’s mansion.

We got there and went in a side door. Amie’s lived in a separate part of the house that was as big as my whole house. In addition to her bedroom, she had her own bath, dressing room, and kitchen. Her walk-in closet was twice the size of my bedroom.

She flopped across the bed and turned on the TV. “Relax”, she said. “Want a movie?”

We watched a movie, ordered pizza, and talked. We talked about likes, dislikes, family, friends, school. I’m not much of a talker, but talking with her was easy. We found we had so much in common. I was finally able to relax a little despite her awesome beauty.

It got late and I got ready to leave. She said, “There’s only 2 weeks of school left. What are you doing for the summer?”

“Not going to school,” summed up my summer agenda.

“I’m going to my parents’ camp at Surfside Beach for the summer. They said I could bring one friend. Would you be that friend?”

I was stunned. “I’m sure they meant a girlfriend…right?”

“Probably, but let me handle that. Don’t tell me you have to ask your parents. Just say, ‘yes’.”

“Yes.” Who could turn down an offer like that?

“Cool. Don’t pack anything. I will provide everything. Scratch that…my parents will provide everything.”

“Come back by my house on Saturday.” she added, “We have some planning to do.”

I stepped out of her house and headed down the sidewalk toward home. A light rain had started. The cool mist felt good after a day of Texas heat. My mind kept going over the events of the day. I kept picturing Amie in my mind. I thought, “When God made her, He must have said, ‘I’ll see just how beautiful a girl I can make.’”

I got home and decided to lay across the bed just a little before showering. I closed my eyes, smiled, and though about Amie.

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I opened my eyes to bright daylight. A bird was outside raising a fuss about some personal issue. Did I dream last night? No. It happened. I visited with the most beautiful girl in the world at her home. I looked the clock. Nine o’clock. No sense rushing to school now. I might make it in time for second period. Maybe not, but Amie was in my third period class. I had to be there by then. I got up and looked into the mirror. I was a mess.

I dressed and headed out. The world seemed brighter. The grass greener…the sky bluer. “Amie and Jamie”. Poetic.

I arrived at third period early and waited, watching the door. Amie was one of the first to come in. She seemed to have a brighter smile. She also seemed more beautiful…if that were possible. She waved “hello” to me and took her seat across the room. It was all I could do to look at the teacher and think about what he was saying.

Having Amie for a friend was life changing for me. I was “in”. She introduced me to the cool kids with the implication that I was no longer a “nobody”. These kids talked about summer plans that I could only have dreamed of before. Of course, now I had better plans than any of them. I would be with Amie.

Saturday came and I headed back to the mansion. I knocked on Amie’s door and she yelled for me to come in.

She invited me to sit at the dressing table. She stood behind me and started brushing my hair. After a moment, she spoke, “Jamie, you were right about my parents expecting me to bring a girlfriend to camp with me. You are going to be that girl.”

I looked at her in the mirror and said, “What? That’s impossible!”

“No,” she said, “you are almost exactly the same height and weight as I am. Your hair is long and beautiful, and your face is really not very masculine. We can pull it off…and it will be fun!”

I smiled. I would do anything to spend the summer with Amie. “Ok. How?”

"Go into the bathroom and put on the clothes I left on the chair."

In the bathroom, I found a red lace tank top, white shorts, a bra and a panty girdle. I put them on and reluctantly stepped out of the bathroom.
She smiled. “You look great! Sit down and let me do your makeup.” First she plucked my eyebrows. She started applying makeup and it looked awful. But, as she worked, my boy face went away and a very pretty feminine face took its place.
When she finished, she gave me some white sandals and said, “Put these on. My parents are home and I told them they were going to meet the girl who is going to camp with me.”

We went through the door that led from Amie’s section of the house to the main living quarters. The ceilings were very high and everything looked expensive, but not gaudy. Her dad was on the computer and her mom was thumbing through a magazine. They both looked up at us.
“Mom and Dad,” she began, “this is Jamie. I’ve invited her to spend the summer with me at camp.”

They expressed their extreme pleasure at meeting me and I did the best I could to hide my self-consciousness. I was extremely relieved when they dismissed us.

“See?” she said when we got back to her room. “You make a great girl!”

I stood in front of a full-length mirror and turned side to side. “Yeah. I do!” Maybe this won’t be too bad.

“Jamie. I think you were meant to be a girl. You’re just so pretty! We’re going to have a ball this summer. You might not want to go back to being a boy! Now take off your makeup, go home, and be sure to tell your mom about your summer plans. Oh. I almost forgot one thing. She opened a drawer and pulled out a box and two medicine bottles. I want you to wear this patch on your abdomen. Change patches twice a week. Take one of these pills a day, and one of these a day. Don’t tell anyone about them.”

“What are they?” I asked.

They’re harmless meds. They will help you pull off the girl thing much easier.

I shrugged my shoulders. “OK”. What harm could a little patch and a couple of pills do? I went ahead and put on the patch and took one of each pill. I guess I expected to feel something, but I didn’t. I headed home to tell my mom. She wouldn’t mind. She worked all the time anyway, and we rarely saw each other. I left her a note saying I was invited to a friend’s camp for the summer, omitting the fact that my friend was a girl. I told her I would be going straight there right after the last day of school and that I hoped I got to see before then.

The last class, the last day of school finally came. Amie and I walked to her house together. “In the morning,” she said, “we have hair appointments. We’ll both get pixie haircuts, and we’ll get your ears pierced.” This was really happening. I felt excited. Why was I excited? I’m not supposed to enjoy dressing in girls’ clothing. Then I told myself I was just doing it to be with Amie. That satisfied the part of myself that was having doubts about the whole situation.

In her room, she had us both packed, but just had to take out and show me some of the things she had for me to wear. We ordered pizza and watched a movie. Then, we showered and put on nighties…she had me one of those too…and she painted my fingers and toes bright red to match the color she had on. I kept noticing that she only had one king sized bed in her room. “Amie”, I finally asked, “where do I sleep?”

“Well, Jamie,” she said matter-of-factly, “with me in my bed, girl.”

I thought to myself that Amie must really think I’m a girl now. It was beginning to get easy to get confused.

We got into bed and she said, “Let’s snuggle”. She kissed my cheek and said, “I love you, Jamie”.

“Amie, I love you, too…very much!”

She kissed my cheek again and snuggled up with her arm across my chest. I was in heaven.

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I was vaguely aware that it was daylight and someone was moving about the room. Where was I? Oh! Amie’s room! Great! What a day today would be!

“Put on the shorts and top I set out for you. Our hair appointments are at 9 am.”

She was already dressed and ready. She applied my makeup and brushed my hair and we headed out.

She led me down a hall and we came to a door which opened into a garage. There were half dozen cars there. She walked to a Corvette nearby, turned back to me and said, “Let’s go!”

“This is yours? You have a license? Why don’t you drive it to school?”

“I don’t want anybody to mess with it. A while back vandals damaged a lot of cars in the school lot. This baby was right here and didn’t have to go through that. My dad got me a license. He knows a lot of people.”

She clicked a remote and the garage door started opening. She started the Vette and it seemed incredibly loud in the confines of the garage. She drove out into the driveway and it didn’t seem so bad.

When we got onto the street, I began to feel very self-conscious about the clothes I was wearing. Amie looked at me and said, “Jamie. Why are you slumping? No one is going to say anything. No one will even recognize you. We’ll be at Nancy’s salon in just a little.”

She pulled into a small parking lot. I decided to just stand up straight and forget I was a boy. We walked into the salon and bells on the door tingled. Nancy was the only one there. “Hello, Amie.” She said in a Vietnamese accent, “this your friend”?

“Yes, Nancy, this is Jamie. We want matching pixie haircuts.”

“She look a lot like you. You sure she not your sister?”

“Oh, I’m very sure of that!” I made a face at Amie where Nancy couldn’t see. Amie smiled and blew me a kiss.

Nancy was now busy arranging her supplies. “Jamie, you go first?” I sat in the chair ready to accept my fate. She got her ear piercing gun. “Two?” Before I could answer, Amie answered, “Yes”. So, she pierced both ears two times. I had seen that Amie’s ears were pierced twice, so I assumed I was to be a carbon copy. Then, Nancy washed, dried, buzzed, clipped, sprayed, combed, and brushed. I couldn’t see anything that was going on. When she finished, she finally turned me to a mirror. The transformation was incredible. I actually looked a little like Amie! What I did not look like at all…was a boy! I got out of the chair stunned.

Amie had a big smile. “Jamie, you look wonderful”. She hugged me, then she got into the chair. After Nancy worked her magic, Amie’s hair looked exactly like mine. I thought to myself that we looked like sisters. As if she read my mind, Amie said, “We’ll be sisters this summer.”

We got back in the Vette and headed to the house to load the car. The suitcases overloaded the Vette and had to be tied down. With that done, we started out on the long trip to her parents’ cabin on the lake. I thought of Thelma and Louise.

I pulled down the visor and started admiring myself in the mirror. Amie saw me out of the corner of her eye, and said, “Yeah. You’re beautiful, girl.”

“Amie. You still remember that I’m a boy, don’t you?”

“WHAT?” She said feigning shock. “You’re kidding, right! Tell me you’re kidding! I can’t take a boy to…tell me you’re kidding!”

“OK! Amie, I was kidding.”

“Whew! Jamie, don’t ever scare me like that again. Look. My hands are shaking.” She held out her right hand. It did, indeed, seem to be trembling.

“Amie. I’m sorry. I won’t joke like that again.”

“Thank you! Ug!" She stuck her finger in her mouth as if trying to cause herself to vomit.

We drove in silence. I went to sleep and dreamed I was flying. I could see tiny houses below me I would flap my arms and go faster. I headed down and the houses…

“Jamie!”

“What happened?”

“We’re here.”

The “cabin” was approximately the size of my house. It was high up on piers and it was right on the water’s edge”. There were other cabins, none as large or as close to the water as Amie’s. There were several boats tied up on a dock right next to Amie’s cabin.

“Whose boats”. I asked.

“Ours.” She said nonchalantly.

We went in. The air conditioning had the place very cold. “The caretaker has the utilities on. I told him to make the A/C very cold. We can cut it back now. I just don’t like to be hot.”

Amie started opening another suitcase. Let’s go swimming. Holding up a black and pink girls’ swimsuit, she said, "I have you this one piece. Wear the little panty girdle under it to keep everything flat down there."

Ah! She hadn’t forgotten I was a boy. What a faker! But, who cares? I’m here with Amie and we have all summer to…whatever!

We dove into the water. It was warm and clear. After a few minutes, we heard a voice, “Like your hair!” It was a girl at the next cabin. She was taller than both Amie and me, and her hair was very short.

“Hey, Leslie!” Amie called out. “Cmon in!”

“Nah. Not right now. Ya’ll come over when ya’ll get out.”
“OK!” said Amie.

We finally got out of the water, showered, and got dressed. I had so many clothes I didn’t know what to wear. Finally, Amie picked out a some shorts and a ruffled tank top for me. We started out for next door.

Leslie was three inches taller than me and Amie. When we went in, Leslie put one hand behind Amie’s neck, pulled her closer and kissed her on the lips. Amie resisted only slightly. “Very close friends”. I thought.

“Ok,” said Leslie, “this has got to be your sister.”

“Yes,” said Amie, “I finally got her to come to camp.”

“Great!” said Leslie.

“Now…Leslie….!”

“I just meant it’s great that you have a sister as beautiful as you.”

“OK.” Amie said, sounding relieved.

I knew there was more to that conversation than I could understand, but I marked it off to a private joke between them.

“Ya’ll gonna be here all summer?” Leslie inquired.

“Yes,” said Amie, “unless we get bored.”

“If you get bored, go shopping,” Replied Leslie, “There’s a new outlet mall about 10 miles down the highway.”

“Really? We’ll have to check it out. Jamie needs clothes.”

“Oh, really?” Leslie was leery. “You never wanted for clothes.”

“Jamie didn’t pack very much. On purpose, I think.”

I stuck my tongue out at Amie. She reciprocated.

“Well,” said Amie, “we’re going to go watch a movie. You wanna come, Leslie.”

“Nah, my dad will be here soon and he wants me to go fishing with him.”

“Oh, yuk!” Amie made a face.

“Hey, it’s kinda fun!” replied Leslie.

We headed back to the big cabin and plopped down in front of a huge television to watch. She picked out “Oscar”, with Sylvester Stallone. It was a confusing, but very funny movie. We headed for bed and Amie snuggled up. She reached her arm around my chest. “You’ve been taking your pills. I can tell.”

“Yes,” I said, “and the patch.

She snuggled closer. “Goodnight, Jamie.”
“Goodnight, Amie.”

I lay awake in the dark wondering how she knew I was actually taking the pills she gave me. Was it something I said or did? The pills were to help me pull off the girl thing easier. What did that mean? I decided to ask her the next day.

I awoke to the smell of bacon. “Wake up, sleepy girl!” Jamie called from the kitchen. She had me a plate of bacon, eggs, and toast. I thought it was the best breakfast I had ever eaten.

“Wow, Amie, you sure can cook!” I exclaimed.

“It’s just bacon and eggs.” She looked at my ear. “Are you turning your earrings?”

“About a thousand times a day.”

“That’s OK. I know they say wear those for 2 weeks, but I we’ll get you some hoops you can wear today. It won’t hurt anything.”

“Amie?” I asked
.
“Yes?”

“How did you know I was taking the pills you gave me? What are they?”

“OK, Jamie. The truth is the purple pills and the patches are hormones. The other pills are androgen suppressants. They will all work together to give your body a more feminine shape and suppress your development as a male. When we met, I sensed that you’re not really happy being a boy. This summer will give you a chance to see how the “other half” lives. Not many guys get a chance like this. I thought you would enjoy it but, if not, you can discontinue the medication.”

“That still doesn’t tell me how you knew I was taking the pills”.

“When I put my arm around your chest last night, I could feel that you are already developing “breast buds”. The nipples get larger just before breasts start developing. Your body likes the hormones and responds to them quickly.”

This was a lot to take in. “Amie, I think I need to lay down. I feel really tired all of a sudden.”

“Yeah, hormones can do some strange things. I’ll come lay down with you.”

It was not even noon when we got into the bed, but when I work up it was almost dark. I got up and went into the kitchen to find Amie at the table. She had a sandwich fixed for me.

“We slept a long time”, she said, “I just got up”.

“I’m still sleepy”, I said.

“Well, there’s no rule about sleep here. Eat your sandwich and we can go back to bed. We need to change into our nighties, though.”
We changed and got back into bed and snuggled. She patted my soon to be forming breast. Amie’s body felt so warm and nice next to mine. I felt relaxed and peaceful. I drifted off into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

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I woke up and Amie was still asleep, lying on her side facing me. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes and smiled. “Hello, girlfriend,” were the first words out of her mouth. “What shall we do today?”

“I don’t know. I’m kinda bored out here in the woods. How about you?”

“You took the words out of my mouth. To the outlet mall it is.”

We headed to the outlet mall…fast. Amie seemed to always drive fast.

We got there as the stores were opening. After a quick lesson in how to walk, we headed for Claire’s. Amie said I needed a collection of earrings, so I got a healthy collection of hoops, studs, and just about every other kind of earring I could think of. We both took a stud out of each ear and replaced them with hoops.

We went to Victoria’s Secret for underwear, then to another store for dresses, tops, shorts, shoes, etc. I now actually had more girls’ clothing than boys’.

When we had all the purchases we could carry, we left the mall and went to eat. Amie knew a good seafood restaurant nearby where the shrimp and lobster were “superb”. We went in and ordered, and Amie tutored me in dining like a girl. I realized there was more to being a girl than just changing clothes.

I had gradually come to the realization that Amie wanted me for a friend, but not for a boyfriend. She now didn’t even think of me as a boy. It didn’t matter to me. I liked the feel of my new clothes. We hadn’t been out together in public much, but I liked the looks we got. I liked being a girl!

We left the restaurant heading for the cabin. After a period of silence I turned to Amie and said, “Amie, I don’t want to pry, but what’s your relationship with Leslie?”

She smiled. “You picked up on that. Guess that wasn’t too hard. Well, last summer, we got to be really close. Her parents were getting divorced, and she came to me for help. All I could do was listen, but sometimes that’s what a person needs…someone to listen. Well, in all my listening, we…. How do I say this? We were lovers?”

“That’s cool”, I said.

“I’m glad you think that’s cool, because I’ve decided I’m not into boys at all. I guess that makes me a lesbian. When the summer ended, Leslie and I agreed that our relationship would end. It seems like she would like to take up where we left off, but she lives about 300 miles from us. The only time we see each other is during the summer. We can’t have a real relationship. Jamie, do you find boys attractive?”

“Are you kidding…yuk!”

“That's what I thought.”

The rest of the summer was all I thought it would be and more. We did pretty much anything that struck our fancy. We ate, slept, watched movies, got on the internet whenever we pleased. Then, I began to watch the calendar. I knew the end of this was near, and school would mean I had to be a boy again. At least, that’s what I thought. The resourceful Amie had other plans.

“All good things must come to an end.” I guess that’s a cliché, but it fit my situation. Summer vacation was soon to be ending. With that, I assumed that my life as a girl was also drawing to a close. The happy days and cozy nights became almost overshadowed by the dread of what was to follow at home.

One morning, Amie was up early and waiting for me. “Jamie, I have something to tell you.”

The words filled me with dread. Amie could tell. “No, Jamie, it’s not something bad. I think you’ll like it. For the rest of high school, my parents are sending me to a private school. I would like for you to go to the same school. It’s for super smart kids, and you qualify. I called my dad a couple of weeks and told him the whole story, and asked if thought he could get you in. He said he could, but we have to ask your mom. If your mom is OK with your new ‘form’, you won’t have to go back to being a boy. Your mom can afford this school. She’s an attorney, right?”

“Yes.”

“Good! She can also handle the legal part of this, and my dad said he would take you as a patient to and prescribe your hormones. He was very unhappy with me about giving them to you, but he doesn’t stay mad at me for long.”

Again, Amie had overloaded me with information. “Amie. I can tell you, my mom’s going to flip. She’s going to be mad.”

“Jamie, when you were born who named you?”

“My mom named me. My dad was drunk”

“Your name is ‘Jamie Lynn’. That’s kind of unusual for a boy, don’t you think?”

“People have said stuff like that,” I admitted. ”The kids at school made fun a little.”

“Is it possible,” Amie continued, “that your mom really wanted a girl?”

I thought a little. “Well, sometimes she says something like, ‘if you had been a girl’…”

“Yes. What did you think that meant?”

“It used to hurt my feelings a little. After a while, I got used to it.”

“Jamie, we’re going to go home and present the new Jamie to your mom and see what she thinks.”

“No, Amie. You don’t understand…”

“I think I understand better than you do. We’re going home today. If you wish, we’ll stop and buy you some boy clothes. Is that what you want?”

That was unthinkable. “No, Amie. I just need some time to get used to the idea.”

“Ok. We need to leave after breakfast. You’ll have plenty of time on the road.”

I sat stunned while she fixed breakfast. I went over in my head a dozen scenarios of what would happen…my mom in a rage…my mom ordering Amie out of the house and calling her dad and giving him a tongue lashing. None of the scenarios were any fun, to say the least.

Amie set out a short yellow dress and some black sandals for me to wear. We had breakfast, loaded up the Corvette, and set out for home. I wasn’t feeling any better about the situation. I thought about something I read somewhere, “This will not end well.” Still, Amie was very forceful, and she was actually offering me something I really wanted. I thought of something I heard someone say, “One hundred years from now, nobody will know the difference.” That made me feel a little better. Meanwhile, the Corvette quickly clicked off the miles between camp and home.

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We pulled into town and Amie finally spoke. “Jamie, it’s Sunday. Do you think your mom is home?”

“Possibly, it’s the only day she gets any time off.”

“To your house, then.”

When we turned on my street, I was relieved to see that my mom’s car was not there.

Amie seemed disappointed. “Well,” she said, “let’s unload your clothes.”

“But, Amie, if my mom gets mad…”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

We had taken one load in when a car pulled up. My heart sunk. I ran to the window. It was mom! “Amie, my mom is here!”

“Don’t panic, Jamie. I’ll talk to her first. When I call you, you come in there.”

We heard my mom come in the front door. Amie headed out of my room to meet my mom. I went and put my ear to the door. I heard my mom call out. “Jamie, are you home…Oh...hello”.

I heard Amie begin. “Hello, Mrs. Simms. I’m Amie. Jamie spent the summer with me at my parents’ camp.”

“I thought…”

“It would be with a boy? Well, Mrs. Simms, it ok under the circumstances. I’ll show you why.” Then, louder, she called out, “Jamie, come on!”

My heart was pounding and my face was burning. I pulled on the hem of my dress to try to make it longer, walked into the living room, stopped, and closed my eyes to wait. No explosions. I opened my eyes. My mom was standing with her mouth wide opened. Finally, I got up a little courage. “Hi, Mom,” I finally managed to say weakly.

Her look of shock turned to a smile. “Jamie! You’re beautiful! Come here.” I ran to her and she hugged me like she had never hugged me before. I heard Amie say, “Yes!”

Finally, she pulled away and held my upper arms and said, “Let me look at you! Oh, Jamie, I can’t believe it! Do you want to be a girl?”

“I’ve been a girl all summer and I like it,” I said. I was brave now.

She turned to Amie. “You did this? How did you know?”

“Know what?” Amie questioned.

“I wanted a girl when Jamie was born. But I loved him just as much as I would have loved him if he had been a girl. If he wants to be a girl, I’m just fine with that. So, how did you know?”

Well, “, said Amie, “you gave him a girl’s name, but it was more to do with him.”

Mom looked puzzled. Amie continued, “Jamie and I haven’t been friends very long, but I’ve noticed him at school. He seemed lost. Well, maybe I should say ‘she’. Anyway, I thought he was so cute! When I finally met him I figured it out. After talking with him for a while, I realized that I had forgotten I was talking to a boy! So I decided to check. I think that in her heart, Jamie is a girl. What do you think?”

“I’m a little overwhelmed. Jamie, why did you never say anything to me about how you felt?”

“Honest, Mom, I guess I thought about it before, but I didn’t want to tell anyone, and I didn’t have Amie to pull it out of me. Guess I should thank her. Thanks, Amie.”

“You’re welcome, girlfriend. No more of this ‘he’, ‘him’, ‘boy’ stuff.

My mom looked at me again. “My beautiful daughter…but school starts in two weeks. Are you ready to go back to school as a girl?”

Amie spoke up, “I think I have a fix for that issue, but we did a lot of shopping while we were gone, and we need to unload the rest of Jamie’s clothes. I think you’ll like them.”

“Jamie didn’t have any money.” Then, looking at me, she said, “Did you have money?”

“It’s OK, Mrs. Simms. My dad’s loaded.”

“No no,” my mom insisted, “get your dad to give me an amount when the bills come due.”

“OK,” said Amie. I knew she wouldn’t do it.
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We unloaded the Corvette and Amie left, but not until after hugs and kisses all around. When she drove away, my mom turned to me. “Well, Jamie,” she said, “I’m overwhelmed. Don’t get me wrong…I’m thrilled, but do you realize how serious this change is?”

“I’m getting an idea. Amie had to teach me how to walk and talk…even eat! Mom, I’m happier than I’ve ever been. There’s just one thing.”
“What’s that?” She frowned a little.

“I don’t like guys.”

She threw her head back and laughed. “I’m not sure I like them either. That’s not as important as you feeling good about yourself.”

“OK,” was all I could say.

She turned toward the house. “Let’s go look at your new clothes. Do you feel like modeling?” She looked at my chest, then reached out and touched me. “Since when do you have breasts?”

“Amie gave me some pills and a patch.”

“Oh. Hormones. You’re well on your way, honey. Let’s go have you do some modeling.”

I modeled clothes for her for about two hours. My room was a mess.

“Jamie, make some room on your bed and get some rest. We can clean tomorrow. I need to go to the store.”

She left. I took a shower and went to bed. I didn’t think I was tired, but it didn’t take long for me to drift off. I had dreams, but awoke to my cell phone ringing the next morning and the dreams disappeared from my memory. I grabbed the phone. “Hello?” It was Amie.

“Jamie, can you and your mom come over tonight. My parents would like to see how she feels about you changing schools…and other changes. Wonder what ‘other changes’ they want to talk about.”

“Gee, I wonder!”

“Yeah. Check with your mom and let me know.”

“OK.”

“Jamie. Want to go to the Galleria and do some ice skating? It’s not very crowded on Monday.”

“Sure! When?”

“Be ready in an hour. Of course, wear the skating dress and the ruffled panties we bought. Don’t forget your skates. I’ll pick you up in an hour.”

I remembered the skates and outfit. Could I find them? I decided to go to the kitchen first to see what I could find for breakfast. As I passed through the living room, I saw what my mom had been shopping the previous evening. She had bought dozens more girls’ outfits for me. They were in shopping bags piled on the couch. She obviously was for this change one hundred percent.

I at a bowl of cereal then went back to my bedroom and found the skating suit. It was white, with pink roses on the left shoulder and right front. The white faded to dark pink down near the hems of the loosely pleated skirt and arms. It was beautiful. I put it on, along with some tennis shoes, the panties and a bra that didn’t need any padding. I made a stab at putting on my makeup, and stood in front of the mirror. No doubt, Amie was going to have to do my makeup again. I vowed to watch closer this time. Regardless, if I were a boy, I would fall in love with me.

It had only been a half hour since I talked to Amie, so I decided to hang up some of my new clothing. I hoped I could find some hangers. I smiled a little. Since when do I hang up my clothes? Well, I thought, since I have some clothes worth hanging. I opened my closet door and found I need not have worried about finding hangers. All my boy clothes were gone. I must have really slept soundly for my mom to take all of them out without waking me. I started hanging clothes. It went pretty well except for some of the slinky things that refused to stay on a hanger. I set those aside until later.

I heard Amie pull up into the driveway, so I grabbed my purse and skates and left, locking the door behind me. I was only mildly surprised to see that she was wearing a matching outfit.

“Hi, girlfriend,” she said. “I see I’m going to have to teach you how to do your makeup. When we get to the Galleria, we’ll go to the ladies room and I fix it and give you your first lesson.” She lifted the hem of my skirt. “Got the ruffled panties on. ..yep! Good!” She lifted her skirt to show that we were twins right down to our underwear. “Let’s go skate!”

She took off…fast again. Soon, she spoke, “This will give you a chance to get used to being in public…AND get used to people staring at you.”

“Why are they going to stare?”

“Oh. You probably think it’s because they’ll think you’re a boy. No way! They’ll stare because you’re beautiful! They’ll stare even more when they start trying figure out if we’re twins. I made my dad so mad last night. I said, ‘Dad, Jamie and I look so much alike! Did you get around quite a bit when you were younger?’ I won’t ask him anything like that again!”

“It’s more likely MY dad got around. I know he did!”

She giggled, “Yes, but I would never ask my mom about something that!”

The traffic in the Galleria area was incredible, even on Monday. Amie seemed unphased by it, though. The staring had started already. A guy in a Mustang couldn’t keep his eyes off us. I wagged my fingers at him and he waved back. “Amie snapped,” No, Jamie. Don’t acknowledge him!”

“Why not?”

“There’s umpteen bgzillion perverts out there. You never know which one might try to follow you home. They can really be dangerous.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“It’s just one more part of being a girl. Scratch that…it’s one more part of being a pretty girl…you pretty girl, you. The ugly girls are pretty safe.” She smiled.

“You really think I’m pretty, don’t you?”

“I don’t think, I know. You’re awesome!”

“Thanks. Next time I look into the mirror I’ll try to see that.”

‘You’d have to be blind to not see it.”

We finally reached the Galleria and Amie used the valet parking. I didn’t even know the Galleria had it. Of course, this was only my second trip there. I was sure it wouldn’t be my last. We stopped at the first ladies’ room we saw for a makeup lesson, then started toward the ice rink. As we walked, I noticed Amie looking down at my skirt. Finally, she said, “Girl, one thing you learned quickly is walking like a girl, but you walked a little like a girl before I actually met you. I saw you at school and it’s one thing that made me curious about you. Has anyone ever said anything about it?”

“Well,” I replied, “once again…kids made fun sometimes. I really didn’t have many friends, because no one wanted to be friends with a ‘fag’.”

“Poor baby!” She reached out and touched my face. “But that’s OK. Imagine if I tried to pose as a boy. Don’t you think I would go through the same thing?”

“I can’t imagine you as a boy.”

“No. It’s hard to pretend. That’s why you’ve been so unhappy for so long. You just didn’t know what the problem was. I’m kind of proud of myself about helping you. I plan to be a psychiatrist. What about you?”

“I’d like to be an attorney, like my mom.”

“Well, I guess talent runs in families. We’re both following in our parents’ footsteps. You’re so sensitive, Jamie, and I would think ‘lawyer’ and ‘sensitive’ would be mutually exclusive. But, now that I think about it, I can see how there would be a place for sensitive attorneys.”

We walked and the staring continued. Mostly boys and men, but women stared as well. As we walked toward the rink, I looked at Amie and she didn’t seem to notice. But, after we bought tickets and sat down to put our on skates, she looked at me and said, “See what I mean about the stares?”

“Yes, but I didn’t think you noticed.”

“Oh, yes, but I’m used to it, and you will get used to it. I’ve thought about it. There are different reasons for the stares. From the men, of course, it’s mostly just plain old lust. With the women it can be envy, anger, concern and, yes, even lust!”

“Anger?”

“Anger that we’re young and beautiful and they’re not.”

“What about concern?”

“Some women are actually concerned that two young girls are here, apparently alone. Most of them didn’t have a Galleria when they were young, so maybe there’s some envy there, too. I say ’Let them all look, but don’t touch’.”

We hobbled on our skates from the locker room to the rink. I had ice skated once before, and I was very good on roller skates, so I was able to keep up with Amie.

“You’re pretty good, girlfriend,” Amie called over her shoulder.

“Thanks, Amie!” I put my arms out and felt the enjoyed the cool air flowing through my hair and around my arms and legs and up my skirt. I pitied boys, who couldn’t enjoy this kind of freedom.

We skated until early afternoon. I became more comfortable being in public with my new persona. We took our skates off and I felt like I could jump up and touch the ceiling of the Galleria. Not likely, since it was a couple of hundred feet high. I thought to myself, “There are two weights lifted. The skates and the necessity to pretend to be a boy.” Then I thought, “Wait a minute. Was I pretending to be a boy, or am I pretending now to be a girl? No doubt about it…I was meant to be a girl, and I couldn’t be happier!”

We walked back to the Corvette, and now the stares didn’t bother me nearly as much. I took on Amie’s attitude that I didn’t even notice them. If someone wants to stare, OK. Look, but don’t touch! We left the mall, went straight to my house, and ordered pizza. Then, we set about the job of hanging up all my new clothes. The task was slowed down by Amie’s insistence that I try on some of the clothes that my mom had bought.

“I guess your mom is trying to make up for all the years she didn’t have a daughter. She has very good taste. You know, I’ll bet that, in the past, when she was shopping she browsed through the girls’ clothing and found things she would buy if she had a daughter.”

I thought about that. “You know Amie, a couple of times she came home with girls’ clothes. One time I asked her who they were for, she said, ‘They’re for you Jamie. Do you want to try them on?’ So I did. She told me I was ‘precious’. But, I took the clothes off. She hung them in my closet and they stayed there a while, but then they just disappeared.”

“Did you try them on again?”

“Maybe...maybe not.”

“Ok. That answers that question. You were disappointed when they were gone, right?”

“Maybe...maybe not.”

“Come on, Jamie. This is Amie. Remember me? Why did you choose to cross-dress?”

“Cross-dress?”

“Wear boys’ clothing!”

“Oh. I thought I was supposed to be a boy and that was the end of it!”

She smiled. “Not the end at all. And this is not the end either. Your life is just beginning! Then she changed the subject. Have you talked to your mom about tonight?”

“Oh. No! Let me call her now.” I called my mom and she said she would make it a point to be there, but she would probably have to go back to the office afterward.

When I hung up the phone, Amie was holding up a beautiful, sheer dress with a lining. “Maybe this would be a good dress for you to wear tonight. Would you try it on?”

It seemed out of character for Amie to ask me to try on the dress. I stripped down to bra and panties. Amie came closer to me and put her arms around my waist. My arms instinctively went around her neck. She held me a minute, then said, “Oh, Jamie. What would you say if I said I think I’m falling in love with you?”

“Amie. I would be so happy. I’m in love with you!”

She kissed me on the lips. I felt her tongue on my lips and opened them slightly. Her tong went into my mouth. My heart was pounding until I thought it would burst. I didn’t think the kiss would ever end. I didn’t want it to end. I was a girl in love with the most beautiful girl in the world and she was in love with me. Finally, she pulled away. “Oh, Amie. I love you. Don’t stop.”

“Jamie. I love you, but we have a lot to do. Put this dress on please…lover?” She smiled and made a kissing motion with her lips. Her eyes appeared to have a hint of tears.

I took the dress and pulled it over my head. It had a back zipper, which Amie zipped up. Her touch was different now in a way. She was more gentle, lingering before parting, caressing any part of my body that she touched. She stepped back and looked at me. “That’s great, honey. You must look your best tonight. You’re kind of like a debutante.”

“Oh, great!” I said. “I’m not looking forward to being the center of attention. Let’s make that part of the meeting as short as possible. We’ll excuse ourselves, saying we think the adults should talk about it.”

“Yes. Good idea.

We talked and hung up clothes until five o’clock. Then, Amie said she should get home because my mom would soon be home to pick me. She touched up my makeup, giving me pointers as she worked. The we hugged and kissed, and she left for home.

My mom pulled up about five-twenty. She ran into the house to clean up a little and change clothes.

“Jamie, are you ready?”

“Yes, mom. I went into her bedroom to show her that I was all dressed.

“Oh, yes. You’re more than ready. Once more, you’re beautiful. I’m so glad to see that dress fits. It’s one of my favorites.”

“Mine, too. Mom, am I supposed to wear pantyhose?”

“Not tonight, but we’ll get you some. You should shave your legs, even though they don’t need it very much. You need to practice shaving them.”

We got into the car and set out for Amie’s house. When we got up to the front door, I realized it was the first time I had gone in the front door of her house. Mom pushed the doorbell and we heard chimes first in one room, then another. They went on for about five seconds. After a few more seconds, the giant door opened and Amie’s mom stood smiling.

“Welcome Mrs. Simms…Jamie. Please come in.”

Amie and her dad we’re already seated. When we came in, her dad stood up. We sat on their couch. And he sat back down. Amie’s mom asked if we wanted coffee or coke. We politely refused.

Amie’s mom spoke. “Well,” she began, “our girls had a very unusual summer. They’ve begun something that has necessitated us intervening as parents, and we need to be as clear as we can about how to proceed.”

My mom responded, “Yes, I would like to talk about the school first. I’ve been considering enrolling Jamie in private school for a long time. I researched the schools for a while. What is this school like?”

“It’s an all-girls school in San Antonio,” Amie’s mom replied.

Then Amie’s dad spoke up, “Yes, and I’ve already spoke to them. If you want Jamie to go there, they will be glad to have her.”

Mom turned to me, “Jamie, what do you think?”

“I would like to go there so Amie and I can be together. I know the kids at the school wouldn’t understand about me. No one will know me at the new school.”

She turned to Amie’s parents, “Well, I trust your judgment on the school. I like the idea of an all-girls’ school, even though I never considered it before…for obvious reasons.”

Amie’s mom spoke up, “Yes, and that’s the other issue we want to address tonight. But, I think we should dismiss the girls while we talk.”

Everyone agreed about that, so we were dismissed. Back in her room, Amie was profuse in her praise. “Wow, Amie. You didn’t seem nervous at all. You did so good!”

“Thanks, Amie. I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I would be.”

Amie sat at her desk. “Let’s look at our new school online. You’re going to love it! You know, San Antonio is a long way from Houston. We’ll have to live in the dorm.”

“Cool,” I replied. I think living in a dorm will be fun…especially with no boys!”

Amie nodded, “Yeah, that might be the best part. But, your poor mom finally got the daughter she wants…only to lose her again so soon.”
“I’m going to miss my mom, even though I don’t see her much.”

“Well, she’ll always be as close as your cell phone,” Amie said. Then, she turned to the desk and pointed to the computer screen. “Look at the school.”

The school website had pictures of smiling girls and a lip-synch video led by a girl in a tutu, with other girls doing somersaults. We got bored with it and shut it off after a couple of minutes.

We talked a while longer. Then, Amie’s cell phone rang. “Hello,” she answered. “OK. We’ll be right there.” Hanging up the phone, she turned to me and said,” They’re finished talking.”

I smoothed down my dress and we left Amie’s part of the house and went back to where the adults were. They were standing and my mom was holding her purse. “OK, Amie,” she said, “you have a new doctor, and a new school.”

Amie’s mom said, “Thank ya’ll so much for coming over. We’ll stay in touch. The girls will be leaving for school before you know it.”

Amie spoke up, “Could Jamie spend the night? We just started looking at the school website and it looks interesting,” she lied.

“It’s fine with us,” Amie’s mom interjected.

“Sure,” my mom said. She kissed me on the forehead. I have to go back to the office. I probably won’t see you until tomorrow night. I’m going to try and take a couple of days of vacation to get you ready to go. Goodnight, honey. I love you so much.”

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Amie and I went back to her room. I turned my back to her and she unzipped my dress and let it fall to the floor. Then, she unhooked my bra. “Let’s see how your boobs are progressing. I turned around and stood there…my perky little boobs protruding. She smiled, “Jamie, my love, you are a work of art!” Then she looked into my eyes. I could tell she had something serious to say. “Jamie, I want to kiss you again.”
I put my arms around her neck, and she pushed me down on the bed. Once again, my heart responded. My face felt so hot I didn’t see how she didn’t get burned. Her tongue played with mine. The weight of her body felt warm and protective. I reached down to the hem of her top and pulled it over her head. Then I found the hook to her bra a released it. “Fair’s fair!” I said as I pulled her bra off. Her breasts were incredible! She leaned over and I opened my mouth wide to get as much breast into my mouth as possible, and sucked as if I were trying to pull it down my throat. She responded by pulling my legs open and pressing her vagina to the place where mine would soon be. She began moving her lower body up and down against me. My heart pounded even harder. She pulled off her panties…then mine. I was totally nude. She had on only a skirt. She increased the speed of lower body rubbing on mine. I felt a strange sensation in my groin. A male would have an erection but, thankfully, several weeks of hormones made that impossible. The sensation intensified for both of us. “Make love to me, Amie! I’m in love with you and I’m making love with you.” Suddenly, the sensation over whelmed me. I saw lights and stars and heard someone screaming…screams of ecstasy. Then, someone else screamed. It was Amie! The first scream was mine. I felt something flowing in my crotch, a little like I had wet the bed. Amie stopped moving and lay on top of me. My heart was still pounding, but was gradually slowing. She put her hand on my breast and kissed me again, then she laid her head on my shoulder.

“Oh, Jamie, my sweet girl, I can’t believe it! We made love! I want you always.”

“I’m so totally happy, Amie. I have to tell you something, though.”

“What?”

“I think I wet the bed.”

“Oh, Jamie. Silly girl! You had an orgasm…and so did I! Actually, most of what you feel down is mine. I’ll explain sometime.” She stood up and her breasts bounced a little. When she saw me noticing, she bounced up and down slightly. “You like? Give it a year and you’ll catch up with me.”

“I doubt it!” I had a lot of growing to do to catch up with her, but I hoped she was right. The thought of needing a size “34C” bra was exciting. I got up and put on my bra that now seemed so small. I put the ruffled panties back on and pulled my dress on over my head and turned around for Amie to zip me up. Instead of zipping, she let the dress fall to the floor and said, “Don’t get dressed, it’s bath time. Then she whispered in my ear, “I’m going to buy you a ring.”

I turned to face her. “What kind of ring?” I asked.

“Oh, maybe just a friendship ring…for now, but no “BFF’s” for us. We’re a lot more than “BFF’s”.

“Oh? What are we?”

“Well for one thing, we’re ‘lipstick lesbians’. But in our case we’re still more.” She came closer and put her hands on my cheeks. “Jamie, we’re young, but I know this. I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. ‘Forsaking all others…’.”

“Oh, Amie. That’s really serious!”

“Yes, Jamie, I’m serious as I can be. I’m young, but I’ve had close friends and I’ve had lovers, but I never felt the way I feel with you. I want to stay with you forever. I might ask you to marry me, but that’s kind of old-fashioned, we’re too young, AND it’s not legal for two women in Texas to marry.”

“But, all my records show that I’m a male.”

“Don’t you hate that? Don’t you want it changed?”

“Yes, I do. But, if it means….”

“Wait a minute. Do you want a piece of paper that says you’re a male, I’m a female, and we’re married?”

I just made a face.

“Yeah,” she said. “I wouldn’t doubt that your mom has the paperwork started to correct your birth certificate. Any day now, she’ll have a new birth certificate that says she had the baby girl she always wanted.”

I smiled about that. “She’s like your dad. She knows a lot of people. Being an attorney doesn’t hurt, either.”

“You want to shower first, Jamie?”

“OK”.

I set the water very hot and began to shower. I thought about the many occurrences of the past summer and the past couple of days. I was still somewhat in disbelief. I turned my earrings and felt my not quite so tiny breasts. Finally, I turned off the water, dried my hair a little, wrapped a towel around me, and stepped out of the bathroom. Amie was on the computer, looking at the school website again. She turned off the monitor and walked over toward me and kissed me. “It’s been a long day. You’ll probably be asleep when I get out of the shower. Goodnight, sweet girl. I love you.”

“I love you Amie.”

As I got into bed, I thought of a funny story I had heard. A man said his wife could turn out the bedroom light switch, jump into bed, and be asleep before the light went out. I smiled to myself as I lay down. All was well in my world. I turned on my side, sighed, drifted off and began to dream…not good dreams or bad dreams…just dreams…the kind you forget when you wake up, but are brought to your memory by something that happens during the following day.

When I awoke, it was bright daylight. I took a few seconds figuring out where I was. Oh…I was in my girlfriend’s room…or should I say “my lover’s room”? So many things in my life had changed so quickly. The biggest, of course, was meeting Amie and discovering that I was actually a girl in every way except physically. The medication she stole from her dad’s clinic was quickly changing that. My breasts were nearly as large as some of the other girls my age. Down below, what had previously been growing had reversed course. It seemed it was getting smaller by the day. I had not been circumcised, so I had to sit down and hunt among the folds of skin before I could pee. I was hoping my new doctor, Amie’s dad, could do something about that…something involving a scalpel…while I’m asleep, of course. I headed for the restroom and my new breasts bounced slightly. “Awesome,” I thought. I also thought about when Amie said in a year I would catch up with her. Not likely. She had the most awesome breasts! I thought of my mom. Did she have large breasts? Not something you notice about your mom. After going to the bathroom, finding the necessary equipment, and relieving myself, I decided I needed to find Amie. I got my cell phone and pressed “redial”. Hers was almost the only number I called these days…hers and my moms, that is.

“Hello?” Amie sounded wide awake. I still didn’t know what time it was.

“Amie…where are you?”

“I’m in here with my mom. About time you woke up, sleepy girl. Get dressed. You have an appointment with your new doctor. I’ll be right there.”

“OK.”

Instead of getting dressed, I sat on the bed. I knew that Amie would insist on telling me what to wear. She showed up in only about a minute.
“You’re not getting dressed!”

“What should I wear?”

“Oh. I forgot to set it out.” She went to her closet and pulled out a red pleated dress with spaghetti straps. It was very short, of course. “Here honey, she said.” Then she sat on the bed and leaned over. “I didn’t get a good morning kiss, yet.” We kissed and she got her tongue in there, but just a little. “Good morning, honey. Did you sleep well?”

“Yes,” I replied. “I didn’t hear you come to bed.”

“You were fast asleep. I watched you sleep for a long time. I SO wanted to make love to you! I knew you were tired, though, so I kissed you and went on to sleep. You didn’t even stir.”

“Wow, I must have been in a deep sleep to miss a kiss from you, Amie!”

“Oh, don’t worry. There will be plenty of others. Now, get dressed and let’s go to the doctor. Maybe he can whack it off today, huh?”

“Ouch. OK, as long as he knocks me out first.”

Amie just smiled.
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We started out for Amie’s dad’s office. We went in the waiting room and Amie just told the girl at the desk, “I need a room.”

“Hello, Amie. Go ahead to Room 3.”

We got to the room and Amie’s dad came in almost immediately. No waiting for the boss’s daughter!

“Ok, girls…let’s see…Amie go to the front for a little. Send Carol in here.”

“Ok, dad.”

After she left, the doctor looked at some note he had and made a few changes. Then he reached under the exam bed and pulled up two stirrups. A pretty nurse came in the door and stood off to the side as if waiting for instructions. The doctor said, “Jamie, this is Carol. I never see female patients without another female adult in the room. I’m sure you can understand why. Carol is aware of you case, and I can assure you nothing regarding your case will leave this office. Now, go behind the curtain and remove all your clothes and put on the gown that’s in there. “
As I started toward the curtain, Carol said, “The opening goes in the back. There are some ties there.”
I put on the gown. I still felt naked and I was cold. I tied in the back as best as I could and came out and got on the exam table.

“Now lie down and put your feet in the stirrups.”

I still felt naked and cold. Now I felt completely vulnerable. I thought to myself, “Doctor, I was in this position last night at your house and your daughter was on top of me.” I could feel him checking my penis and testicles.

Finally, he spoke. “Any problems urinating?”

“Yes,” I replied. “It’s so small, I have to hunt for it before I can pee.”

He smiled. “OK, go ahead and sit up.”

I sat up as he made some more notes. Then, he explained, “I’ll write you some prescriptions for hormones. Carol will give you a shot today. There is no way you can have sex reassignment surgery until you‘re 18 years old, but hormones can stop any development as a male. Your body and voice will develop as a normal female. Then when you reach age 18 I can recommend a surgeon right here in Houston who can perform the surgery. Now, for the problem urinating, I have done some research, and consulting with some of my peers, I have an option that I think will help. I can pin back the excess scrotal skin and pull the head of the penis back and pin it as close to the body as possible. Then, I will reroute the urethra so that it is straight down, exactly as a female urethra should be. Of course, you will not be able to urinate while standing. I discussed the legal aspects of this with your mom, and we feel that, since the procedure is reversible, there is no legal problem with performing this procedure at your age, especially given your advanced sophistication regarding medical and legal issues. This configuration should last until your 18th birthday, when you can have the much more involved and complex operation creating a vagina and other parts of the female genitalia. I have discussed the procedures with your mom at length. She had given me a free hand in dealing with your care, but we have decided that after we have looked at all the options, the final decision should be up to you. Do you understand your options completely?

“Yes, Dr. Adams.”

“And, how would you like to proceed?”

“As soon as possible.”

“Very good. I’m going to have you sign some papers even though your mom has already signed. You are intelligent beyond your years. I’m proud to say that my daughter is also. This procedure is relatively simple and I can do it on an outpatient basis here in my office today. Would you like to proceed?”

“Yes, Dr. Adams. Please do as much as possible to get me down the road to my goal!”

“Will do, honey.” He turned to the nurse. “Carol, ask Judy to get room 7 ready.”
Instead of leaving the room, she took out her cell phone and called Judy with the instructions.

“I’m going to prepare for the procedure while Carol has you sign the papers I mentioned and goes over a couple of other things with you.”

“Thank you, Dr. Adams”

Carol sat down and gave me papers to sign, which she also signed and stamped with her Notary stamp. Then she said, “Jamie, I might not need to even say this, but from this moment on, you will be referred to as a female. Dr. Adams assigned me the job of going through your files and making sure that they show that you are, and always have been, a female. To be completely legal, the procedure the doctor is performing today, and any procedures related to this issue in the future will be documented as a correction of “congenital anomalous genitalia”. No one in this office is to address you in any way as a male. Anyone who does risks termination. Actually, I don’t see anything like that happening, because you don’t resemble a boy anyway. That’s it honey. The surgery should be completely painless. Do you have any questions?”

“Can Amie come back in now?” I was anxious to Amie and tell her about my surgery.

The doctor replied, “Sure. Sit here just a little and we’ll send her in.”

I sat down and he and Carol left. I felt proud that Dr. Adams and Carol didn’t think they had to talk down to me about medical issues. I had already taken two advanced classes in anatomy and, unlike most of the other students, I learned. Learning was as easy to me as breathing. We didn’t have a TV in the house for a long time. She said TV was “stultifying”. She also grew up in a United Pentecostal Church, which saw television as a sin. When she did get a TV it didn’t me long to see what she meant. The few times that my mom and I watched TV, I would sometimes ask my mom, “Did you read that?” She would respond something like, “It was only on the screen a split second! How did you read it?” I couldn’t tell her, of course, except to say, “It doesn’t take me long to read.” That caused my mom to ask the school to do some testing of my I.Q. In addition to a high I.Q., They decided that I had eidetic memory, Asperger’s syndrome and ADHD. My mom wondered aloud if psychologists were paid by the disorder. I was moved to advanced classes, and my mom took me to a psychologist for a while. The psychologist became confused after a few sessions, and tried to refer me to someone else. I have to admit that I did some research on psychological testing before I went for my first appointment. One thing most people don’t know about psychological test is that they include questions designed to detect whether you’re lying. One easy one to spot is, “I sometimes get mad.” Everyone gets mad, of course, and a “no” answer to this is a clue that the patient might be lying on other questions. Another trick used is to ask the same question more than one time, but in different ways. This tact doesn’t work on someone with eidetic memory. Anyway, I suspected that the psychologist was sick of dealing with someone smarter than she was. (I told her that “Doc Martin” put the emphasis was on the second syllable in “Asperger’s”) I don’t think she knew who “Doc Martin” was, but thought she should, and it pissed her off that I knew and she didn’t . She probably had plans to refer me to a fellow professional she personally didn’t like. (Remember the movie “What about Bob”?) My mom sensed her frustration and anger, and dropped the whole psychology idea. She said they were just trying to keep me in therapy until her insurance benefits ran out. She called the psychologist and gave her an earful about malpractice. Doctors here that every day, but this doctor knew that my mom was an attorney, so she apologized profusely, even offering to refund everything she had charged.

But, the result of all this was that I got moved to advanced classes, and that was when I saw the most beautiful work of art that God had ever put on Earth…Amie. It would be months, however, before I was able to speak to her.

A couple of minutes later, Amie came in and shut the door behind her. “Well, lover…what’s the score?”

I did my best to describe the surgery to her. She smiled as she listened. After I finished my attempt to tell her what was going to happen, I said, “Why are you smiling?”

“You don’t realize what this means. First of all, you won’t have to be wearing anything to hide your gear. Also, just the tip of your penis will be exposed. It will be a whole lot like a clitoris. Can you imagine how much better that will make our love making?” She whispered the last two word as if someone would hear.

My heart jumped. “Cool! Amie, your dad is a genius.”

“I know,” she said, “he gets it from me.” She kissed me quickly while watching the door.

We had about a twenty minute wait. Then, another nurse came in and said, “Jamie?” Amie stayed in the exam room, and I followed the nurse down the hall to room 7. To me, it looked to me like a complete operating room. The nurse had me lie on the operating table as she started explaining what I could expect. She explained, “Now, Jamie, you will be given what we call an ‘epidural’. We put a catheter in your lower spine to administer medication to deaden the nerves in you lower body. You will be awake, but you won’t feel anything from the waist down. Sometimes a slight amount of spinal fluid leaks past the catheter. If that happens, you will need to stay on your back for a few hours. If you try to stand, you will get a tremendous headache…believe me, I had an epidural when I had my first child. You won’t want to stand up. Do you have any questions?”

“Yes. Can Amie come in and stay during the operation?”

“I think she probably can. We’re pretty casual around here…especially where family is concerned. I’ll double check with the doctor. Now, can you flip over on your tummy?”

I turned on my stomach. I could feel a cold breeze from the air conditioning. I really felt vulnerable now. I felt her rubbing alcohol on my lower back. Then, I felt a needle stick. “This is just to deaden the area where we’re going to draw spinal fluid,” the nurse assured me.
She waited a couple of minutes for the nerves in the area to be deadened. Dr. Adams and Amie came in wearing green masks. Amie stood next to me and grasped my hand. It was so good to have her there. I felt pressure, but no pain, in my lower back. I waited. After about five minutes, the doctor said, “Do you feel anything on your foot?” I said I didn’t and wondered why he thought I should feel anything on my foot. Then, the doctor said, “Let’s turn her over.”

They turned me on my back and I realized I had absolutely no feeling below my waist, just as I had been told. They had to turn me over without my help. I tried touching my leg and it was like touching someone else. They lifted my legs into stirrups and the doctor went to work. It seemed like forever, but he finally finished. “OK, Jamie, all done. We’re going to move you to another room to let the feeling come back in your lower body. We’ll give you a shot for the pain. When we’re satisfied that you’re ready, we’ll have an ambulance take you home. Carol, get her mom’s number and tell her not to be upset if she comes home and sees an ambulance at her house.”

I so wanted to see what the doctor had done, but I could barely move and my legs felt dead weight of about 200 lbs. They put me in a room and everyone left except Amie. “What does it look like?” I asked her.

She pulled up my cover and looked. “It looks like a lot of bandages. You have a catheter. You don’t have get up to pee until it’s taken out. Try to rest, OK? It might be a while before you’re released.”
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I woke up with a feeling of motion. I was being moved to a stretcher. Then, I was rolled down the hall, out the back of the doctor’s office, and into a waiting ambulance. I wondered where Amie was, then I saw her pull her Corvette up behind. “I’m goin’ home!” I thought.

At home, they took me into the front door and to my bedroom. Then, they put me in my bed. They asked if I needed anything and Amie assured them that she would take care of me. The EMT people left. I was glad to be home, and I was glad Amie was there. “Well, that’s step one. How do you feel?”

“With my hands,” I joked.

Amie smiled. “When the catheter comes out, I want to see you try to stand up to pee.”

“I want to see that too. It will be the first time. I saw my dad stand to pee one time when I was about five years old. I thought it was gross. He left a mess on the bathroom floor, too. I thought when he left, ‘At least, now we’ll have a clean bathroom.’”

Amie sighed. “It must be tough to grow up without a dad. My dad was always so strong, and he’s always been there for me. I guess I took it for granted having both parents.“ Her voice broke a little. She kissed me on the forehead. “Sleep…sweet baby,” she whispered.

I didn’t sleep as long as I thought I would. I woke up after an hour. Amie was quietly hanging more of my clothes. She heard me stirring and turned around. “Hello, Honey. I set your laptop on the nightstand. I hope you don’t mind me changing your wallpaper. I put a picture of the ‘twins’ on it.” I smiled. A picture of Amie and me would be perfect wallpaper. She hadn’t turned it off, so it didn’t take but a few seconds for it to “wake up.” When it did, there were the “twins”. It was a picture of Amie…topless and making a blowing a kiss. It was so beautiful it was breathtaking. I smiled…the smile that I guess you would call a “conditioned reflex”, like when a person looks at a picture of a cute child. I heard someone say that if a person looks at a picture of a cute child and doesn’t smile, there’s something wrong with that person. I thought that was a valid assumption, but I definitely wasn’t looking a child. Even though Amie was only 14 years old I figured if she developed any more, she would have back trouble.

“That’s a really precious set of twins. Do they give you much trouble?”

She smiled, “If I run, I have a hard time keeping them still unless I have a really good sports bra on. That’s the only time they’re naughty.”

“Oh, that’s just awful,” I said. “So awful that I hope I have the same problem some day.”

“I’ll bet it’s not as far in the future as you think. From my point of view, it looks like you’re growing by the hour.”

“Yes, it does. Seems like every time I check, which is pretty often, there’s been more development.”

“Amie,” I said, “I’d like to ask you a favor, but I can understand if you say ‘no’.”

“Sounds serious.”

“Not that much. Would you go to my mom’s room and find one of her bras and look at the size?”

“Oh, sure. We’re just gathering information. No harm there. They’re huge, I’ll just go see how huge.”

She left the room for a few minutes and came back with a big smile. “Well, some are 34D’s, and some are little bitty tiny 34C’.” If that’s any indication, you better get ready to be carrying a couple of large jugs, you poor dear!”

“Yes!”

“But, Jamie, you might not believe this, but you can inherit big boobs from your dad, too!”

“No way!”

“Way! Even though he’s a male, he still carries what you might call the ‘large boob’ gene. That gene lies dormant in him, because the male hormones in his body keep him from developing breasts, but if he has a daughter, the gene goes to work developing the breasts that females in the family are destined to have.”

Changing the subject, she stepped to the side and said, “Look at your closet. I’ve got most of your stuff in there, but it’s just too packed to put anything else. “You’re going to need a bigger closet.”

“I’ll tell my mom. She’ll come up with something.”

“OK. Hey, Jamie, you got room in that queen sized bed?”

“Amie, I would have room for you if I were in a twin bed!”

Amie crawled into bed next to me and snuggled. “You’ve had a lot of sleep. If you want to surf the web, I’ll just lay here next to you and go to sleep.” She sighed a long, peaceful sigh. “I just feel so peaceful here next to you.”

“Rest, Amie. Thank you for everything.” Amie closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. I watched her sleep for a long time, then my eyes started burning (the sandman). I went to sleep, secure in the knowledge that I was loved…by Amie, by my mom, even by Dr. and Mrs. Adams. I was now feeling more love than I ever felt as a boy. It opened my eyes to the value of love in humans. As John Lennon wrote, “All you need is love.” I thought about him. He died in 1980, way before my time…murdered senselessly by a deranged “fan”.

Well, as usual, my mind had wandered far off the “beaten path”. I decided to go back to the subject of love. Love must be like a drug. I had felt love before. The love that my mom showed me was no doubt sincere and unquestionable. But despite that unquestionable love, it seemed that her love had grown immensely with my recent changes. Now that I’ve felt that amazing love, I don’t ever want to be without it. It seemed I never would. So far, everyone who was aware of my new persona was all in favor. But, even thought I was young, I was not unaware of possible pitfalls ahead. I knew there were people out there just waiting for someone to get outside the lines of acceptable societal behavior, to take on society and go her own way. They were delighted when they find someone like that and do their best to destroy them. “I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.” With that thought, I closed my eyes to sleep.

But sleep doesn’t always come easily. It was the end of the summer and Amie and I would be busy packing for school. Another quote came to mind, “The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.” Jeremiah 8:20. Yes…The Bible! I read it when I was 9 years old. I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever read. It was tedious at times, yes, but worth it if you persevere. It occurred to me (if this is not sacrilegious) that Amie and The Bible were alike in a lot of ways. Amie was the most beautiful creature ever made, and The Bible was the most beautiful book ever written. They were both inscrutable at times. They both commanded respect and expected that their dictates be observed. They both sought to change a person who is taking a wrong path in life. The more I thought, the more similarities I saw. This was odd to me, because if there was any aspect of Amie I would have thought of, religion was not even in the running.

But, have I said that Amie was beautiful? Yeah, I thought so. There were a lot of beautiful girls in my school, but Amie was beautiful in all caps…BEAUTIFUL.

Of course, there were other translations of the Bible. I read some of the other translations…New International Version, New Living Translation, etc. If ever a mustache was painted on the Mono Lisa, it wouldn’t be a greater crime than what these new translations did to beauty of the King James Version of the Bible. I feel it’s not a coincidence that the Bible was translated by edict of King James. Just as God gave us beautiful tree, rivers, mountains, sunrises, sunsets, and countless other displays of His Glory, The Bible was translated in a time when the English language was an art form. Many of the familiar scriptures are so beautiful that the mere reading brings tears to the eyes.

Many scholars now only study the Bible for what you might call “opposition research”. The advocates of an “open mind” cannot see the irony when they read the greatest book ever written just to nitpick. It’s beyond me how anyone can claim to be educated and well-rounded without a pretty good knowledge of the Bible. With these and a thousand other thoughts churning in my mind, I saw there was no other way to get to sleep, so I woke up Amie and got her to give me a good dose of pain meds. Finally, I drifted off.
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The next morning, I was able to get around carefully. I was ready to get the bandages off to see what I had…or didn’t have. We were to leave for school soon, but Dr. Adams said he could remove the bandages just before we left. I still had the catheter, so I had to empty the bag every once in a while. (Gross) Amie was taking over the job of picking what clothes I would bring…no surprise there. We would be making the 100 mile trip to San Antonio in the Corvette, so Amie’s parents were hiring a guy with a large van to move all our clothes and other possessions we couldn’t do without.

Everything had happened so fast that I hadn’t had time to realize how much change was happening in my life. Oh…just about everything. I took consolation in the fact that the changes were all positive. There were, of course, a few unpleasant things. I would be away from my mom. I would be away from my favorite teachers. This was one time in my life, however, when not having many friends was actually a positive thing. I could sincerely say that I would not miss the friends I didn’t have. I used to tell my mom, “If the phone doesn’t ring, it’s probably a friend of mind.”

But now I had Amie. She was so totally in control and self confident. When I was with her I felt a lot like her. I guess she was a crutch. But, hey…if you need a crutch…use it. It’s better that falling on your face. I loved my little Amiecrutch, though. She sincerely loved me, too. Of course, I’m no judge of character, but she says she loves me and what would it gain me to question her? I was not going to allow suspicion or paranoia affect our relationship. I was head over heels for my beloved Amie.

Two days before our scheduled departure for our new school, Dr. Adams removed my bandages. He left the catheter in and gave Amie and instructions on removal. It seemed simple enough. Everything seemed surreal but wonderful. My mom and Amie’s parents all warned us that the new curriculum would be much more challenging than that to which we had grown accustomed in public school. We both agreed that a more challenging curriculum would not be difficult since the public school seemed to be geared to the lowest common denominator.

We were also excited to discover what the girls were like at an exclusive private school. I worried that they Amie and Jamie
might be snobs, but I took comfort in the fact that Amie could deal with anybody. She could make friends with almost anyone. Those who refused to be friends she usually ignored.

We decided to have everything packed and ready on a Monday night and start out on the 3 hour trip across central Texas at 4 am. This would put us in San Antonio before 8 am. Anyone who has experienced Texas weather in August would understand the logic of this plan. This gave us time to get breakfast before heading to the school to see what kind of registration nightmare awaited us.

I once heard it said that driving across Texas is not a trip…it’s a career. Luckily we were going “only” about 200 miles. The trip went well, but it’s not a scenic route. The Katy mall is huge, but if you’re not going to shop, it’s just traffic. The turnoff to LaGrange was mildly interesting. Remember “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”? That was about the end of the scenery. I was kind of glad I didn’t have a driver’s license. I laid back and found where I left off in “Huckleberry Finn”.

Amie looked at my book title. “Kind of a boy’s book, huh?”

“I guess, but it’s fun to read and you can learn a lot about the times it which the author lived. When you read history books, you get something like, ‘Rulers of the Spanish Empire, which had expanded north of Mexico City into present-day New Mexico and California, believed it would be advantageous to link California and New Mexico.’ Boring, right?

“Well,” I continued my defense, it’s a good rule that, if you’re going to write…write about what you know. Sure, you ‘know’ about things you’ve read, But Samuel Clements or, if you wish, ‘Mark Twain’, lived the things about which he wrote. When you read his books, you are not only entertained, but you get to know the ‘flavor’ of the period. You begin to understand the class system which had developed. This country was well on its way to developing a society not dissimilar to that our ancestors left in England. The history books might try to explain this, but ‘Mark Twain’ makes you understand it. At one point, when Huck Finn is helping Jim escape, he argues with his conscience about it because he feels he is stealing property from Jim’s owner. That tells me how commonly accepted slavery was in that day. Also, the dialect is fun to read aloud.”
“Wow. You wouldn’t over analyze, would you? Seriously, I’ve read ‘Tom Sawyer’, but haven’t got around to ‘Huckleberry Finn yet. I’m glad I haven’t because now I’ll look at it in a whole new light.”

“I think Tom and Huck have slightly different personalities from one book to the other. Of course, the book, ‘Huckleberry Finn’ is a little darker and more serious than ‘Tom Sawyer’.”

“Well, when you finish ‘Huckleberry Finn’ in a few minutes, maybe you can just use your eidetic memory and tell me the whole story.”
“I’m afraid you’d go to sleep if I talk that long. Going to sleep at the wheel at 80 miles per hour is probably not a good idea.”
“I’m only going 78…and a half, and have you noticed all the cars passing us? If someone wants to pass me on the highway, I’m happy to let them because I imagine them saying, ‘There’s a speed trap ahead. Please let it catch me...PLEASE?’ More than once, I’ve seen a car pulled over that passed me a few miles previously. When I do, I think, ‘You’re welcome’.”

“Well, you’re right about people passing us. A cop with radar has a lot of speeders from which to choose. He can ignore a couple of girls creeping along at on 78 miles per hour...excuse me 78 and a half.”

“This ‘Vette is cool for driving around town, but it sucks on a long trip like this. When we go home for a visit, we’re driving to the airport and taking a flight home. We’ll fly to Hobby Airport. It’s not nearly as far from River Oaks as Bush International.”

“My thoughts exactly, Amie, ‘Great minds…’ you know.”

“Get the MapQuest ready. We’re approaching San Antonio.”

The MapQuest led us to the school with no problem. We arrived at a gate which opened to a long drive. At the end of the drive were several beautiful brick buildings. Some of the buildings had ivy growing up the walls.

“Well,” said Amie, “we’ve made it to the Ivy League already.”

Amie parked the Corvette and we walked into the massive main building. A very neatly dressed woman sat at a desk. Her name tag said that she was “Miss. Burton”.

“Welcome,” she said gleefully. “You’re our very first arrivals this morning. Do you have your registration cards?”

We had our cards ready. She took them and said, “Welcome, Amie Adams and Jamie Simms. You are in room 101 in “Jane Long” building. You’re lucky. You’ll be close to almost everything and you can park your car right at your door. You’re already registered. I assume you have laptops. Your login information is in your room. You can log in and look at your schedules as soon as you get settled in.”
We both thanked her and proceeded back to the car to move it and unload what little we had. The van carrying the bulk of our possessions would arrive later that day. Our room was much larger than we expected, and from our window, we could see the main building entrance. We would be able to watch the other students arriving during the day. In the closet, school uniforms of several different sizes were hanging. We were to find a size that fit us and hang the others on a rack near the door. We would then be given several uniforms of the chosen size. Of course, we were the same size. I stood in front of the mirror in my new uniform. I began to wonder: “Is this a dream.” No. It was definitely reality. Thank goodness it was reality. This would be a horrible dream from which to awaken. I started thinking about what I would be doing at this moment if I hadn’t met Amie. I soon cast those thoughts aside. Why think about something so boring when reality was infinitely better.

Amie walked up and stood next to me looking at our reflections. “Honey,” she said, “we have it made. All we have to do is not screw up. Let’s vow to make perfect grades. Then, we’ll be on our way to the real Ivy League. We have one huge advantage over the other girls.”
“What’s that?”

“Boys…they’re a major stumbling block for so many girls. We don’t need them. Oh, we can have a ‘crush’ now and then, but they’ll soon realize that they come second or third in our priorities, if they figure in at all.”

“Cool,” I said. “We’re a self-contained learning machine, and neither of us is likely to get the other pregnant.”

“Right! I wonder what the probability of that would be. It would be a decimal point followed by several thousand zeros.”

I put my arms around her neck. She held my waist, “Zeros and ‘exes’”, I said. She pulled me closer and kissed me as if she would never stop. When she did stop, she looked at my face.

“Jamie, you’re blushing. How sweet. I love everything about you. Even your blushing. Well, there is one thing that’s a problem, but it will be taken care of in time.”

“I can’t believe I have to wait until I’m 18 to have corrective surgery. I wish there were another way.”

“Funny you should mention that. My dad and your mom are actually looking at the possibility of you having surgery overseas. They could arrange to do it secretly in the states, but they’re both too much ‘by the book’ to do something like that. My dad is investigating the work of different physicians in Thailand. If he can find someone he trusts, you could have surgery during the Christmas break.”

“Oh my God, Amie, that would be wonderful!”

“Yes. I know my dad, and he’ll find someone. You’ll be all girl…and I’m claiming you now. You’ll be all MY girl! Jamie…your eyes…are those tears?”

“Maybe,” I said, my voice breaking. “I never thought I could be so happy!

Well, you’re beautiful even when you’re crying.

There was a light knock on the door. Amie opened the door. It was Miss Burton. “Just checking. Are you girls happy with your room?”
She looked at me. “Tears? What is it?”

“Just a slight touch of homesickness”, Amie explained.

“Oh, dear. Well, when classes start, you won’t have time for homesickness. Besides, you can call home anytime after classes. I see you’ve both found your uniform sizes. I’ll go ahead and take the rest of these and make sure you get some more of the sizes you need.”
She took the uniforms and left.

“Look,” Amie said, “new arrivals”. A silver Cadillac SUV was pulling up to the front of the main building. When it stopped, a tall, slender girl with very short brown hair stepped out. She wore jeans and a white, man’s dress shirt. From a distance, she appeared to be wearing no makeup. She didn’t need makeup. She was a natural beauty, but she was built more like a young boy. She had slender hips and, apparently was not wearing a bra. It was hard to tell because the shirt was a little large for her.

“Well,” said Amie, “it’s pretty easy to read her. 'Boys…forget it!’ Let’s make friends with her, but not real close friends…you know?”

“Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. She really is beautiful, isn’t she?”

“Yeah, boys are going to cry when they find out they don’t have a chance. They should know that just by one look at her, but boys can really be dense.”

“She probably carries a sharp knife in those jeans, and any boy who goes too far is liable to wind up without balls.”

“Oh…that’s why the bulge,” Amie said. “I thought maybe…”

We both giggled as the new girl headed in the building. She definitely didn’t walk like a boy, but she had an air of confidence about her. She seemed to be one who knew where she was going and what she wanted when she arrived.

Students began arriving with increasing frequency. They all had at least two things in common: they arrived in style and, almost without exception, they were beautiful.

Amie noticed the latter. “They must have a beauty rule at this school. I wonder if our parents had to send a picture of us to get us admitted.”

“Well, I guess we made the cut. Let’s look at our schedules.”

We got out our laptops and went through the necessary procedure to set up usernames and passwords. Whoever set up the school software knew what she was doing. That was a relief because so often websites are done by someone who thought being a programmer would be cool, so they went to night school and got a paper that said, “This person is a computer programmer.” The “programmer” then set up a website full of glitches that sent the user in circles without accomplishing anything. Any problem was automatically called “user error” or “data entry error”

This school’s site, however, was seamless and simple to use. We looked at our schedules and, amazingly they were identical!

“Wow,” I said, “that can’t be a coincidence.”

“No, said Amie. Probably my dad’s doing.”

“Your dad is amazing,” I said.

“I know. I realize that more every day.”

Suddenly, both laptops beeped. A message popped up, “Any students wishing to have brunch can proceed to the cafeteria. If you have special dietary requirements which you have not yet communicated to the school, please see Miss Winston in the office adjacent to the cafeteria.”

Amie and I looked at each other. “Let’s eat!” we said in unison.

The cafeteria was not hard to find. When we got there, we found almost anything a person could want for brunch. If you didn’t find something to your liking, a cook was standing by ready to fix whatever you could want (within reason). Amie and I piled our plates with bacon, eggs, and fruit. There was plenty whole milk to wash it down. Diet? All that was to us was the word “die” with a “t” added. We were growing girls, and we wanted lots of fat to grow us in the right places. My breasts were growing so fast I could almost see the difference daily. If Amie’s breasts grew any more, I figured she would fall forward. She wouldn’t fall on her face, though. Her breasts would stop her. Her whole body was a work of art and, incredibly, she grew more beautiful daily.
We ate until we could hold no more. It seemed that the school must have hired the best cooks they could find. We left the cafeteria and headed back to our room for a nap.

But, a nap was not in the cards for us. The “man with the van” was there with all the things we thought we couldn’t live without. He was willing to unload it all, but we decided to help him so the work would go faster and we could place most things in places that would be more convenient for us when we started sorting them out. When we got everything in our room, it was not as large as it had seemed before. We began the process of prioritizing our possessions. Some of the things we thought we needed so badly now became clutter, and back to the van they went. Curtis (the “van man”) didn’t mind. I’m sure he was very well paid. When we were done, he headed back to Houston with the van more than half full.

By this time, we were past needing a nap. We began sorting out what now were the “bare necessities”. Most people would be amazed at the amount of clothing, shoes, underwear, trinkets, toys, keepsakes, pictures, etc. that we found indispensable. As we sorted, we found creative ways to place items to make the most efficient use of space. When we were done, we had a beautifully decorated dorm room with plenty of space. We also each had a spacious study area. These areas were the most important because study was the whole purpose of our being there. We realized that, unlike when we were in public school, we were not the smartest kids in school…at least, not yet. We didn’t know what kind of competition we were up against, but we knew that some of the other students were as smart or smarter than we were. We had a challenge ahead, just how much of a challenge we did not yet know. This could have been scary, but I found it more exciting. Amie didn’t seem worried a bit. I knew she was smart, but I didn’t know how smart. If there was any lacking in her intelligence, (which was doubtful) she made up for it in confidence.

At 5 pm, a message came across the laptops offering dinner. We went down and had a light dinner, then went back to our room to put the finishing touches on our decorating. At 8 pm, we decided to turn in and get a good night’s sleep so we could face whatever challenges awaited us on our first day of classes. Our room had twin beds with a window between them. We decided to ask the next day if we could have a double bed, saying it would take up less room. If someone suspected we had some other reason…OK. Suspect away! If they think we’re lesbians or something like that, they could just get over it.

I lay down and closed my eyes and wondered how long it would take me to go to sleep. I opened my eyes again and the room was bright. Had Amie turned on the light? No…it was light outside, too. I looked at the clock and it was 6:45 am. Wow, I thought. I slept fast! Today was the day we find out what private school is all about. It was like starting a new chapter in our lives. I looked at Amie’s bed. It was empty. She was already in the bathroom getting ready. One decision was already made for us. What to wear. I had to admit, the uniforms were a time saver. Breakfast was from 7 am to 7:45 am. First class was at 8 am. Our first class was math. Classes were 1 hour 10 minutes, with a 10-minute break between classes. An interesting aspect of our schedule was that Physical Education was our last class. This would enable us to go back to our dorm room to shower, affording us more privacy. Once again, we saw our parents’ influence on our schedule.

In the public schools, the emphasis recently was on a heavy homework schedule. My mom suspected that the purpose of this development was to push job of teaching the important things (the 3 R’s) off onto the parents, so that the teachers could concentrate on the politically correct issues, such as gender equality, gay rights, and transgender rights (ha…imagine that!). The problem with this is those students whose parents have little education or those parents who don’t realize that the teaching job has been assigned to them are less likely to be involved in their children’s education, thus perpetuating an inferior education for the poor.

In our new private school, classes were intense learning sessions and homework was assigned to ascertain that the students were learning. Those not keeping up with the class were given special attention to get them up to speed because, once allowed to get behind too far, it was almost impossible to catch up. This special attention was also intense. The parents are called and made aware of the situation because a child must be brought up to speed or ultimately the child must be held back a grade. This is looked down upon in the public schools, but in a private school there is the issue of tuition.

Generally, a parent doesn’t want to pay tuition twice for the same grade level. Summer classes with reduced tuition are made available to try to keep the student from having to repeat a grade.

This type of remedial work is rare, however, because the students admitted to the school are generally well above average academically.

The intense nature of the teaching in the classroom left little time for the little distractions so common in public schools such as note passing and chit chat. The fact that the school was for girls only eliminated competition for boyfriends or girlfriends, at least for heterosexual relationships. There was, or course, a thriving community of relationships that the school did their best to ignore. Some were just relationships among girls who had occasional spats, some were lesbians who had breakups and other problems similar to heterosexual relationships.

Still, the school seemed to function well and turned out well-educated young women.

Math class was mostly review. Second period was history, where I was thankful for my eidetic memory because the textbook was so incredibly boring. The teacher’s lecture did make it come to life a little, but I tucked away all the textbook information in preparation for the tests to come.

English was a breeze because grammar is mostly rules. Rules are something at which I excel. I guess I inherited that ability from my attorney mom. Even the exceptions to the rules were easy because an exception to a rule is essentially another rule.
My memory would carry me through Spanish, also. That left Physical Education. I loved volleyball. All other sports I hated with a passion. I would have to do a good acting job to make an “A” in PE.

All this going on academically left little time to think about one really important aspect of my life; the fact that I was transitioning from male to female. That fact came to mind with less frequency as time passed. I felt that it wouldn’t be long before the idea would be a relic of the past that would be of questionable validity. In could see myself in the future wondering, “Is it possible that I was actually a boy at some time in my life? I think I remember having a tiny penis. Maybe that was a dream…or a nightmare. I can’t see myself as a man. That’s such an odd concept.” Maybe at some point in the future, I could be hypnotized to forget that I was born with such a repulsive appendage.

Being the first day, PE class was spent getting fitted for shorts and tops. Most of the time was spent sitting around chatting. I sat in a corner. I just didn’t feel like chatting. Amie, of course, introduced herself to several others who she thought might make worthy allies. They would, or course, be OUR allies. Amie saw me sitting alone and realized I was happy having “alone” time. I would meet the new friends in due time. I was happy that she recognized my need to be alone, and I appreciated her taking the responsibility of making friends for both of us.

My “alone” time was very important to me. If it was quiet, that was even better. Sometimes, a television or radio playing would get to be too much. If I had the controls, I would mute it. I found the ensuing silence beautiful.

I thought about just leaving and going to the dorm, but it was a little early to start making waves. I wouldn’t mind, but it would affect Amie also. At some point, we had set our individual selves aside and become a team. That was fine with me. It seemed to make everything easier. She filled in a place in my life where something was missing and, I guess, I provided something she needed. I wasn’t sure what that was, but I was happy with the arrangement and she seemed to be also.

I noticed that Amie was being measured for P.E. clothes. She waved for me to come over, and asked that I be measured right away because we were roommates and needed to both get our room in order. We were quickly measured and dismissed. We headed back to the dorm. We felt too tired to review the day’s classwork, but once we got to our room, showered, and relaxed a little, we both felt better and we quickly reviewed our classwork.

We finally lay down to sleep, and after a few seconds, Amie’s voice broke through the dark. “You wouldn’t believe how many lesbians attend this school!”

I was incredulous. “What? How did you find that out so fast?”

“Oh..I had my ‘gaydar’ out. A little suggestive chit chat and out they come.”

“’Gaydar’ huh? I don’t think I have that.”

‘You will”, she assured me. “Just give it time.”

I smiled in the dark, then drifted off to sleep.

Each student had been issued a name tag with her first name in large black lettering. We were told that the tags were to be worn as part of our school uniforms. On Friday, a dark-haired girl whose tag boldly proclaimed her name to be “Lauren” sat across the table from Amie and me. Lauren had an air of smugness about her. She seemed much more interested in the two of us than she was in eating lunch, and she kept staring at us … mostly at Amie. Finally, she asked, “Where ya’ll from?”

“River Oaks,” Amie answered.

“That’s in Texas?”

“Yeah, it’s a neighborhood in the center of Houston.”

“Must be an old neighborhood. Is it kinda run down?”

“No”, Amie answered after appearing to consider the question a bit, “it’s actually pretty nice.”

“Pretty nice” was a huge understatement. River Oaks was rated number one in Houston property values every year. It was not unusual at all to see a million dollar home being torn down to replaced with a bigger, much more expensive residence. My mom’s house was one of the smaller, “cheaper” houses. I remembered her telling me once that it was worth about $850,000.

Lauren kept staring. Finally, Amie said, “Your parents didn’t teach you that it’s impolite to stare?”

“You’re just so beautiful.”

“Thanks,” Amie replied.

“No one would ever guess.”

“Guess what?” Amie kept eating her lunch. She was obviously ready for this conversation to end.

“That you used to be a guy.” Lauren’s smugness was now in high gear.

I couldn’t help but giggle at the irony of this statement, but Amie smiled and held her composure.

“Damn!” You read me. “But you’re a genuine female…XY chromosomes and everything.”

Lauren looked puzzled but affirmed that, yes, she did have XY chromosomes.

“Naw, I’ll bet you don’t have XY chromosomes.”

Lauren was becoming more incensed at having her femininity challenged. “Yes, I do!”

Amie delivered the coup de grâce. “Look, dumbass: males have XY chromosomes and females have XX chromosomes. Now, don’t EVER come sit at my table and make stupidass insults again, and I won’t let the whole school know how ignorant you are. OK?”

Lauren tried to summon her smugness, but to no avail. Lauren had never had an adversary like Amie, and smugness had fled. Lauren was speechless for the rest of lunch. She would have to find a replacement for her smugness. Humility stood by, ready to for acceptance, but Lauren was too stunned to move, much less offer an apology. She sat speechless and tried to appear emotionless. She had vastly underestimated her adversary. Her only hope was that no one beside the three of us had heard the exchange.

Amie didn’t appear to be upset or angry. How could she be so cool? How could she know that Lauren was clueless about chromosomes?

At the risk of sounding trite, I will just say that Amie was a “people person”. Usually, that term implied “liking” people. It wasn’t that Amie liked people any more or less than anyone else. She “knew” people. If Sherlock Holmes had been a real person, I would swear that Amie was his reincarnation. I had watched her eyes when she met someone, her eyes darted everywhere on that person’s body before she made eye contact. This happened so quickly that no one noticed. I had to watch for it myself or I would miss it. I found her talent intriguing and it was fun to watch. She said she had “gaydar”, but it was more than that. It was like x-ray vision into the soul. I thought about the fact that her dad was a doctor and my mom was a lawyer. Amie’s talent would help make her a good doctor, but Amie as a lawyer would be a formidable foe.

As we walked to our next class, Amie seemed concerned. “Well, now that my secret is out, you probably won’t want to stay in the same dorm room with me.”

“When she looked us both over and then accused you of being a boy, I almost lost it. How did you know she didn’t know anything about chromosomes?”

“Well, someone told me that this is her first year. When they told me where she went to school last year, I knew it was a safe bet that she doesn’t know much about anything. Plus, you can look in her eyes and see that there’s not much behind them. I’ll take that back … she probably knows quite a bit about football. That’s really important, I guess, if she wants to be a coach.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet that school turns out some well-rounded students. Maybe she’ll make it as a professional cheerleader. That will be a good chance to display her intelligence.”

“…or lack of it. But she has some physical assets to make up for her lack of a well-functioning system of synapses. You might say in some areas, she’s a well-rounded person.”

“Yeah, let's drop any concerns about her. ‘Eye on the prize’. Onward to Spanish class.”

The rest of the day was uneventful, and Lauren had disappeared, but Amie’s confrontation with her had taken a lot of my energy. I couldn’t help being vicarious, especially with Amie. When my head hit the pillow that night I tossed and turned for about a second.

I was hoping lunch the next day would be uneventful, but here I was, sitting across from Lauren with Amie nowhere around. Where was she? Lauren stared a while, then she spoke, “Everyone knows about you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Everyone knows you’re a guy. Look around!”

I looked around the cafeteria. Everywhere I looked, girls were whispering to each other while stealing sideways glances at me. Anyone who saw me looking quickly averted her gaze. Some were giggling.

Lauren continued, “You’re being kicked out of school. You don’t belong here. You’re going back to your old school.”

Finally, I located Amie. But her name tag said “ANA”, and she was wearing a white coat and carrying a sword. She also appeared to have wings! She was standing near the cafeteria door next to my mom! Amie (or Ana) was saying, “Come with me, Jamie, I can help”. My mom was beaconing to me. “Come on, Jamie. It’s OK”

Amie kept insisting that she could help.”I’m beyond help now.” I thought to myself. But Amie kept insisting. “Come on Jamie! Jamie! Come on Jamie!"

“Come on where?” I tried to walk toward them, but something was keeping my legs from moving.
“Come on and WAKE UP!”

I sat up in bed. My heart was pounding. “Where’s my mom. Where are we going?”

“Going? Nowhere! Jamie calm down! You were dreaming!”

I looked into Amie’s eyes for a few seconds, then hugged her neck like I would never let go. “Oh, Amie, it was awful! It was so real!”

Amie smiled as I related the dream to her. She hugged me. “Your mom is not here. You’re not going home. As for being a boy…what the hell are you talking about? If you think you’re a boy maybe you need some counseling.”

I flopped back on my pillow. “It was just so real…it was scary! I can’t shake the feeling that my mom is here to take me home … or somewhere. What could the dream possibly mean?”

“It’s just a dream, and it doesn’t mean anything except that you’re feeling insecure. It’s 4 am, I doubt that your mom drove up here during the night. You can call her, but I would wait a while. It would scare the hell out of her to get a call at 4 am and see your number on the caller ID. You woke me up with your crying and talking. I tried to understand what you were saying, but I couldn’t make out any of it.”

“Sorry.”

“No way! I’m glad I was here! You’d be halfway to Houston with your mom if I hadn’t awakened you. I’d have to call you to come back!” She smiled.

“You name tag said ‘Ana’ … spelled with one ‘N’ … and the sword. That’s got to mean something … doesn’t it?”

“Yes. You need to work on your spelling.”

“You know, Amie, so many people have lives that suck. Then they have wonderful dreams, only to wake up to their same old sucky lives. I’m just the opposite … I have a life that’s like a dream … and dreams that suck!”

“Well, we’re both unusual people. I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

“Me neither, but there’s one way I’d like to be kind of normal.”

“How’s that, Jamie?”

“I like to be the kind of person that doesn’t get up at 4 am.”

“Good plan. Let’s get some rest.”

Amie turned out the light, but I lay awake thinking about my dream. I tried to imagine what the significance of the details of the dream could be. I worried that, whatever the meaning, it probably was not good. Finally, I drifted off and slept with no more dreams.

The sunrise brought our first weekend at our new school. The faculty left it mostly to the students to organize activities. Students who had car were prohibited from using them without specific instructions from the parents when and where they were allowed to travel. Still, such permission was discouraged by the school due to the many things that could go wrong.

Amie, of course, had plans for us. She had found more than enough girls interested in volleyball to have several team. There was no “choosing sides”. Amie assigned every girl to a team based on Amie’s perception of her ability. With Amie’s gift of perception, I had no doubt that the teams would be very near equal in ability.

We had a quick breakfast, went straight to the volleyball court and, of all people Lauren was there! She was contrite, “Amie, I really want to apologize for the things I said at lunch yesterday. I was angry at my parents for sending me so far from home. I guess I thought I’d take it out on you.”

“It’s OK.” Amie replied. “Where is this far away place from whence you have traveled?”

“Nederland,” she said meekly.

Amie knew the place because she had relatives nearby, I knew because I had studied the Texas map and memorized virtually all the cities, towns, rivers, lakes, and whatever Texas had to offer.

Still, Amie asked, “That’s in Texas?”

“Yes…near Beaumont.” Lauren’s eyes lit up as though just being from Texas brought her closer to friendship with Amie.

“Your dad works at a refinery.” Amie surmised.

“Yes! How did you know?”

“Your dad’s not a professional person, and most non-professionals from that area who have an appreciable amount of wealth work for a refinery. Do you know what your dad does?”

“He’s a supervisor of…something.”

“That’s OK. I’ve never met anyone who knew what their dad did if he worked in a refinery. They probably don’t want to put out a lot of information out there due to security. As for being a long way from home, doesn’t the air smell fresher here?”

“Well…it smells different.”

“My guess is you haven’t smelled fresh air in a long time. Houston air is not great, but it’s better than the air in Southeast Texas where there are so many refineries. Look, see the girls who have gathered around us as we talk? They’re ready to play volleyball. Aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I like volleyball.”

“Then, let’s play! OK, we have enough for 4 teams. First I’m going to call out the team captains names. Then I will call out everyone else’s name and tell you your captain’s name. You will line up behind your captain. OK…the captains are me, Lauren, Abby, and Kim.”

I was so glad Amie didn’t assign me to be a captain. I was equally glad to find that I was on her team. There were 3 volleyball courts, so we had plenty of room. Everyone there took the game seriously and seemed to enjoy it as much as I did. Most were very skilled as well. One thing I did realize, though. I was going to invest in a good sports bra. I had developed to a point where too much jumping was uncomfortable. Hopefully, Amie had one I could borrow, since a shopping trip was not in our plans soon. The school rules were too strict for us to take off on a shopping spree, even though we had a stylish ride available and plenty of money to spend.

The game was exhilarating. We played for more than 4 hours before some of the girls started saying they were hungry. Amie decided it was time to break. “OK. Let’s go eat and get a little rest. Whoever wants to play some more, meet back here in 3 hours.”

We had some lunch, then went to our room to rest a bit. I lay on my bed and went over the details of my dream. It had to have a meaning! It was too real, the white coat, the sword, “ANA”. The name (or word) was in all caps. “American…what?” I decided to put it out of my mind and try to relax. It seemed just a few seconds later that I heard Amie saying, “Jamie. Wake up. Let’s go play some more volleyball!”

I sat up in bed. The lunch and rest had done a lot of good. I was ready for more physical activity.

We walked to the volleyball courts. A few girls were already there and more were drifting that way. Apparently, Amie and I were not the only volleyball aficionados.

However, the competition was not as fierce as it was earlier. Many of the girls were out of shape after a summer of TV watching, online shopping, and whatever other distractions enabled the girls to remain sedentary for many of their vacation hours. After a couple of hours it became obvious that many of the girls were unable to play effectively. Amie decided to dismiss everyone. “No volleyball tomorrow. Sunday is our day of rest. “

Amie and I headed to our room to clean up before dinner.

After we showered, we lay across our beds to rest a bit. My dream was still on my mind, so I asked, “Amie, do you dream very much?”

“Not that much, but when I was younger I had a series of unusual dreams. One night, I dreamed an angel came to me and said, ‘your grandmother is going to die’. Oh, I was scared! The next morning I told my parents and they reassured me that, even though my grandmother was older, she was in pretty good health. That made me feel better, but a couple of days later my grandmother did die.”

“Oh, no!”

“Yes. My parents never mentioned my dream, but I know it was on their minds. Time passed, and they seemed to forget about my dream.

“But a few weeks later I dreamed an angel came to me and said that my grandfather was going to die. I found that they had not forgotten my dream at all. They called my grandfather to ask how he was doing. My mother started going by every day to check on him. But 2 weeks later, my grandfather died. My parents still tried to deny any link between my dreams and the deaths of my grandparents.

“But then one night, I dreamed my father died”

“Oh, Amie!”

“Well, my parents were believers by this time. My dad was very careful when he would drive or anything he would do.”

“But your dad didn’t die!”

“Well, a couple of days later, our postman collapsed on our front porch and died.”

“What? How old was…. Was it a heart attack? I don’t....”

“Jamie! Stop!”

“What?”

“It was a joke!”

“I don’t get it! What part of it is a joke?”

“Amie…it’s all a joke. My mom and the postman? Get it?”

I paused…slowly I began to ‘get’ the joke. I smiled.

“Jamie, I have a theory.”

“About what?”

“The brain, intelligence, and common sense.”

“Ok , Amie. This has got to be good!”

“You know it used to be said that we only use 10% of our brains, but now that is no longer accepted by science. The concept has been now relegated to the status of “urban myth. Scientists say we actually use 100% of our brains.”

“OK.”

“I think it’s probably true that we use 100% of our brains, but most people use a small percentage...say 10%... of their brains for formal learning…math and the like. But the rest of the brain is used for really difficult tasks. Those tasks are things we take for granted like socializing, understanding people and empathizing. We don’t’ realize how difficult these things are because so much of the brain is dedicated to these tasks…for most people.”

“OK, Amie. I want to hear about the “not most” people.”

“Well, I can name one of them and she’s in this room right now! But you probably can’t imagine about whom I’m talking.”

“Uh…let me think…I’ll bet it’s either you or me.”

“It’s you! Your IQ is unbelievable. And your eidetic memory has got to use up a lot of resources. Yet, you have a hard time understanding people. You’re kind of like John Nash, the guy who was the subject of the movie, “A Beautiful Mind”.

“Wow! But I don’t have imaginary friends!”

“Well … I might not be real.”

“Amie, you are almost too good to be true, but an imaginary friend would not drive me around in a Corvette, at least I hope not. Also, an imaginary friend would not arrange volleyball games.”

“OK. I guess I’m real, but don’t you think my theory makes sense?”

“Yes, except there’s one person who seems to be the exception.”

“Who’s that?”

“Who do you think? You! I know your IQ is in the genius range, yet you have amazing social skills!”

“Well, I guess it’s ironic that my theory doesn’t work on me.”

“Still, it might be good for a doctoral thesis someday.”

“Right! Hey, wanna eat? Don’t look at me like that! ... dinner I mean. Maybe Lauren will be there to grovel some more. I’m sorry. That was mean. I’m sure she’s an OK person. She could probably be a good friend. Not to me, of course. Damn! I can’t stop saying mean things about her. I really need to because I think she would make a good friend. She’s kind of needy though. ”

Sunday dawned dark and rainy. It was just the kind of weather I love. Amie had already left, probably for breakfast. I decided to sit in bed and surf the web. I clicked through pages of hyperbole. It’s amazing the tales that people tell when there is no accountability and little censorship. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I feel most people can discern for themselves what is believable.

I came upon a story about a Palestinian who walked into a Jewish market with a bomb strapped to his body under his clothing. A photo caught the chaotic aftermath of the resulting explosion. In the bottom right of the photo, a little girl of about 3 or 4 years of age looked helplessly at the camera. Her eyes showed her confusion about what was happening. I looked for a long time at her eyes. She seemed to say, “Where is my mommy? Why is everybody yelling all of a sudden?”

My heart filled with compassion for the child. I thought about the security and comfort of my own life contrasted with the life of this child and millions of other children and adults living daily with the specter of violence. I felt the tears begin to run down my cheeks. I set my laptop aside and put my face into my pillow and began to weep. I was overwhelmed by the unfairness of the evil thrust upon this child and so many others. I felt helpless. I thought of the cruel reality of the term, “Life’s not fair.”

I was beginning to regain my composure when Amie walked in the door with a tray. “Breakfast!” She stopped suddenly. “Jamie! What’s wrong?”

I didn’t trust myself to try to speak, so I pointed to the face of the little girl on my computer screen.

Amie looked at the child’s face several seconds, then turned to me. “Jamie, you are the sweetest, most tender-hearted person I’ve ever met. That’s one reason I love you so much.”

“Amie, there’s just so much pain in the world…unnecessary pain. I believe in God because I see His work, but I also believe in Satan, because I see his work. Some of those doing the work of Satan claim to be doing God’s work!”

“Well, Jamie, you can’t bear the world’s burdens. You can just be a good person, and you are a very good person.”

“Amie, I sometimes wish I could be a little less caring because it hurts. The breakfast you brought me here is probably more food than that little girl eats in a week. The rulers of some of those countries overseas live in castles and have servants or slaves, and they let their people starve. I can’t help but believe that such selfishness will someday, some way be punished.”

Amie looked at me and paused a second, then quoted, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

“Oh, my God! Who are you and what have you done with Amie?”
“I’ve read the bible too, Jamie. I just don’t have the whole thing in my head. I just keep certain key verses handy.”

“That’s a good one, but I certainly don’t plan on vengeance against anyone.”

The rain had been steady, but it began to pour. The roads were beginning to flood. “Wow! That’s beautiful! Amie, I can’t help it. I just love this kind of weather.”

“I like it, too. You can lie in bed and read or work on the computer without being tempted to go outside.”

“Good idea. Let’s knock out our homework.”

Homework didn’t take long. We assumed it would increase as the school year progressed. After that, we read and surfed the web just the way God intended that we spend a rainy Sunday. We rested up for another week of our lives of privilege and opulence.

The school year continued slowly. October came, bringing cool fronts that brought first rain, then a break from the hot weather. The hot weather would then return and the cycle would repeat, with each front growing colder and lasting longer. By the end of October, fall was truly here, fully a month late. That’s central Texas weather. The cool air was invigorating, and it brought new energy to our weekend volleyball games. Sometimes, we would continue playing in the rain.

The schoolwork was a breeze for Amie and me. Most of the other girls were somewhat above average intelligence, but there were some who were really bright. The difference from the public school was the lack of disciplinary problems. There were a few incidents, but parents were paying dearly for tuition, and the teachers would not hesitate to report any problems to the people paying their salary. Any situation which could not be resolved by the school staff could be handled by a call to the parents. Parents would not abide a child refusing to learn when the price of that learning was so dear.

Amie and I vowed to get the most for our parents’ money. The teachers and staff grew to trust us so much we could have gotten away with just about anything. Trust, however, is easy to break, but not easily repaired.

I was in the dorm room. I wasn’t sure where Amie had gone. I stood and looked into the mirror. “You were on your way to becoming a man. Amie saved you.” I wondered if my voice would be changing now if I hadn’t been taking hormones for months. My pixie haircut had grown out I needed to get it cut again or styled. I pulled my hair back and put a clip in it. My breasts loved the hormones and responded nicely. My hips and legs were developing to give me a nice, feminine figure. What if I hadn’t met Amie? Talk about a close call! I could have been the sullen, lonesome teenaged boy I had been…only taller with a deep voice, hairy arms, and pimples.

As if summoned by my thoughts, Amie came through the door and saw me at the mirror. “Yeah, if I were that beautiful, I would look in the mirror, too!”

I turned and went to her and hugged her. “Thank you, Amie!”

She didn’t have to ask why I was thanking her. She just said, “Wow! I can see you’re not second guessing your changes.”

“No, I was thinking about how close I came to a disastrous future.”

“You know, you make me happy, too. Seeing you develop so beautifully is a joy, but I have news.”

“Good news?”

“Very good! Your mom and my dad both called the school and got approval for us to have an extended Christmas holiday so we can go to Thailand!”

“Oh, I can only think of one reason for us to go to Thailand.”

“Right. You don’t have to wait until you’re 18 for an operation. Your mom was so sure of your wishes that she felt it would be ok to arrange this, but you need to call her and confirm how you feel about it.”

I wasted no time calling my mom. She was going, but might have to come back early for work, of course. Both of Amie’s parents were going. I had two months until I got my “birth defect” corrected. It would be difficult to concentrate on school work now. But we both vowed not to let circumstances affect our education.

But it would be the longest few weeks of my life.

December brought the Christmas holiday. We decided to drive home in the Corvette. We could fly back to school in January. We had to fly out of Houston the next day heading to Thailand. It felt so good to get home! Our parents had first class tickets for everyone. Amie told me later that the tickets were about $80,000 each. I was stunned. Our bags were packed also, so we really didn’t have a lot to do. That was good because we needed rest.

We took a shuttle to Bush Intercontinental Airport the next day. We got out bags checked in and went to wait at our departure gate. There were dozens of planes at arriving and departing at different gates. I got tired of waiting and sat down and closed my eyes. I was awakened by Amie. “Oh my God, Jamie look at our plane,” I stood up quickly and looked at the huge jet pulling into the gate. It was an “All Nippon Airways” jet. It was all white and blue with bold letters on the side and tail: “ANA”. I stood with my mouth opened, then turned to Amie. She was grinning. “Your dream is coming true.” I had to sit back down. My mind was racing. I had never heard of “All Nippon Airways” before. Yet, in my dream, Amie was wearing a white smock with the letters “AMA” on the nametag. Was my dream a prediction? What good is a prediction if you can’t interpret it? Maybe it was a warning? Were we going to crash? I was in a daze. My mom was heading to the gate and noticed I wasn’t following. She turned and beaconed, “Come on, Jamie. It’s OK.” Her exact words from my dream! She walked back and took my hand and pulled me through the boarding process.

***NOTE TO READERS IF YOU HAVEN’T READ ABOUT “THE DREAM”, READ “AMIE AND JAMIE – CHAPTER 5 – LAUREN”.

“Jamie honey, what’s the matter?” my mom questioned me as she pulled. All I could do was look at her blankly. A pretty Asian woman greeted everyone getting on the plane. I vaguely remember her saying, “Welcome to All Nippon Airways”, but pausing to look at me as if she knew me from somewhere, but couldn’t recall where. The atmosphere changed when I got into the plane. It was cooler, and there was some kind of “hissing” sound. First class was definitely that. They seemed eager to make sure we got our $80,000 worth. I heard Amie tell the flight attendant that she was cold. The attendant almost ran to get something to keep Amie warm. I was seated next to my mom and we were in the air and “free to move about the cabin” before I finally regained my composure enough to tell her about my dream.

“It’s all a lot to take in,” my mom declared after hearing the details of my dream. “First, I find out I have a daughter instead of a son…and believe me, Jamie, I’m thrilled about that…now I find out she’s psychic.”

“Mom, it’s just one dream, but it is a little spooky.”

I was turned to the left, looking at my mom and a voice to my right said. “Hello, ladies! I told them I was cold and look what they brought me.” It was Amie. She was wearing a white smock with the letters “ANA” on the front.

I put my head in my hands. “OK. This is just too much. At least you don’t have a sword.”

She put her hands into the pocket of the smock. “Well, don’t you believe the pen is mightier than the sword?” She pulled her right hand out of the pocket and produced a ball-point pen. The top half of the pen was shiny silver and shaped much like a sword.

My jaw dropped. In a stage whisper, Amie said, “Jamie! If you keep doing that, people are gonna think you’re a ‘mouth breather’”!

I clamped my mouth shut and turned to my mom. “Mom, I don’t need to go to college if I’m gonna be a psychic.”

“Tell you what,” my mom replied, “finish high school, college, then law school or maybe medical school. If you still prefer being a psychic you can give ‘readings’… or whatever they do…out of the house.”

I smiled. “This is gonna be fun.” They both knew I wasn’t serious.

Amie went back to her seat and I lay back and put on the ear buds to listen to music. The song, “Morning has Broken”, by Cat Stevens was just beginning. I braced myself for what was to come. Soon, I heard:

Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden,
Sprung in completeness where His feet pass.

The tears began to flow. My mom touched my hand. “Jamie?”.

I tried to explain, “Mom, it’s just so…” but my voice broke. I pointed at my ear bud and she nodded her head. She understood me and my music. I was listening to what I consider the most touching version of one of the most beautiful songs ever written. I thought about Cat Stevens becoming a Muslim a few years later. Then the face of the little girl on the website about the bombing came back to me. Tears began to flow uncontrollably. My mom handed me a napkin, which soon became soaked and had to be replaced. I thought to myself, “Yeah…you wouldn’t have made much of a man like this.” Men can cry, of course, but they better have a damn good reason or it just looks weird. Can you see a man weeping and saying, “Oh goodness…this song is so beautiful.”? See what I mean?

I watched the graphic depiction of our flight path on the screen. The plane crept slowly toward the northeast. I assumed the pilot knew the way, but it looked like we were headed for New York. We had been in the air less than a couple of hours, but it seemed longer. The total trip was almost 20 hours. The hormones I was taking provided some extra padding and made prolonged sitting less uncomfortable. I wished I could sleep, but I was never one who could fall asleep just anywhere. I certainly couldn’t sleep in a pressurized cabin miles in the air with dozens of strangers.

My mom had pulled out some of her legal papers to work on. I watched her, but carefully avoided distracting her. She read a little, frowned, highlighted some text, then continued to read. She was a smart attorney, no doubt. I once told her I must have inherited my brains from her. She said my dad was brilliant and worked as a chemical engineer, but he let drugs and alcohol take it away.

I realized that the longer I had to think, the more my thinking would drift into unpleasant memories. I asked Amie to ask her dad if he had something to help me sleep. She went and whispered something to her dad and came back with a tiny white tablet. My body was usually resistant to such medications, but I took the pill and laid my head back to see if I could at least relax if not sleep. I tried to visualize the medicine coursing through my bloodstream, relaxing my mind and body. Suddenly, the whistling sound in the cabin changed to a lower pitch. Were we losing altitude in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean? I looked up at my mom to ask what was happening. Then the flight attendant clicked the microphone, “We are beginning our descent toward Phuket International Airport. Please return to your seats and fasten your safety belts. The temperature on the ground is 73 degrees Fahrenheit with light rain.” I had been asleep for hours! The trip was over! Wonderful! I made a mental note to thank Amie’s dad for the pill, but he was busy right now handling ticket, passports, etc. Mom was looking at me and smiling, “I was watching you sleep and talking to God, thanking Him for giving me such a brilliant, beautiful child. Jamie, I love you more than life. I never want to take you for granted. I know that life can never be perfect, but I want your life to be as happy and fulfilling as possible.”

I held her arm and rested my head on her shoulder. “Mom, God has blessed me with people who love me and understand me. To wish for more would just be selfish of me.”

I looked out the window and still could on only see dark. The flight attendant was saying it was almost 8 pm local time. I thought about Thailand. I had seen “Brokedown Palace”, about two girls framed and arrested for drug possession in Thailand, and I had no desire to go sightseeing or any other tourist activity. I was here to get some unnecessary parts of my body removed and leave them here for the Thai doctor to do with as he saw fit. He could dissect them, discard them, or maybe donate them to some poor boy who was born in the body of a girl. I thought that was unlikely and wasn’t sure if it was even possible. I just knew that once I was rid of that tissue, I would feel 10 lbs. lighter…even if it was only 10 oz. or tissue. I would be able to wear pants so tight that they looked like they were painted on. I doubted that I would, but there would be no worry about a bulge that didn’t belong.

Since Amie’s dad’s reputation as a physician preceded him, the local surgeon had invited us to be guests at his home. I wondered how large his home was; since I was pretty sure the homes in Thailand were not as large as American homes, and certainly not as large as Dr. Adam’s home, or even my mom’s. But this doctor specialized in this surgery, had a lot of American patients, and probably made a very good living.

As we got off the plane we walked into the airport and there stood the doctor himself. He held up a sign that said “Amie and Jamie”. Amie and I smile and looked at each other. I’m sure our parents told him to write that. Dr. Adams did not offer to shake hands, but placed his open palms in front of his chest and bowed deeply. Dr. “Chet” did the same but bowed even deeper. He welcomed us in perfect English. That made me feel better. Maybe it’s silly of me, but when someone speaks with a foreign accent, I’m just not sure the precise meaning of what I’m saying is getting through to that person. He pronounced his name for us but insisted that we call him “Dr. Chet” since very few American could pronounce his full name. After everyone was properly greeted, we walked out the airport door where a driver waited in a van. We all climbed into the van, with the doctors in the very back where they could discuss their common interests undisturbed. Dr. Chet probably didn’t often get to meet a distinguished American doctor and wanted to glean any and all information he possibly could in a short amount of time. Dr. Adams looked pleased to have a colleague to talk to after such a long, tedious trip. The two of them talked like they were buddies meeting after a long separation. The van driver waited and soon, several of the doctor’s employees brought our bags and placed them into the back of the van. Mrs. Adams counted the bags and nodded to indicate that everything was there. The driver put the van in gear and started toward our destination.

The van ride was short. The doctor’s home and office were in the same building, and it was quite large by Thai standards. He had two large rooms set aside for us. He apologized…unnecessarily…for the accommodations. It was really nice and comfortable. Both doctors took off their shoes and left them outside the door and the rest of us followed suit.

Even though it was late, Dr. Chet and Dr. Adams decided to give me an examination. They brought me and my mom into an exam room. I quickly stripped, put on a gown and got into the stirrups. This was definitely not the U. S. because I was allowed to change into my own pale pink baby doll outfit…sans panties. My mom looked out the door and motioned for the doctors to come back. I think they were somewhat taken aback by my lack of shyness about the situation.

The doctors examined me extensively. Dr. Adams explained various aspects of the work he had previously done. Some of this I understood…some not.

After the exam, our host said dinner was ready. Everyone left me in the exam room, and Amie returned with her dinner…a hamburger! My dinner was chicken broth. We ate and chatted until a nurse came in with an injection for me…something to make me sleep. Amie kissed me goodnight and left. I lay in the dark and tossed and turned for about a second.

Someone turned on the hall light and opened the door. Today was the day and everyone seemed ready to get started. After a couple of injections, I was numb enough below the waist for anyone with a task to perform there to perform that task with no discomfort for me. After the initial prepping, it was time for the general anesthetic. A nurse held a clear plastic mask on my face and told me to breathe deeply. I took a deep breath. Then I heard Amie whisper, “Jamie”, as she gently kissed my face.

I reached up and touched her cheek, “Night-night, sweet lover,” I mumbled.

“Night-night? You’ve been asleep for hours! How long you wanna sleep?”

I was in disbelief. “It’s over? No way!”

“Yes, it’s over. The doctors are in the next room patting each other on the back for their beautiful work!”

“Oh, Amie! I’m so happy!” I’m sure tears would have come to my eyes had I not be so sedated. “Mom!” I grabbed my mom’s neck and hugged tightly.

Mom smiled, “Just a few days and we can go home.”

“I wanna go home now!”

Amie spoke up, “Yeah…I’d like to see you try to even get up…not really…you don’t want to damage your new equipment! You’ll be getting heavy doses of pain killers and antibiotics for a while…then, the unveiling of your new vagina!”

“Amie, do you have to be so graphic?”

“Yep! That’s my Jamie…even under the influence of drugs…always a proper lady!”

“So it’s all done…no more excess material down there?”

“Right! When you heal, you’ll have a perfect vagina to go with your perfectly beautiful female body.”

“I’ll never be able to fully thank everyone who helped me. I’m so deeply in debt I’ll never get out.”

“I don’t need thanks,” my mom asserted. “I guess I’m also in debt to Amie and her parents. Thanks to them, I have a beautiful, happy daughter.”

Amie touched my hand, “You can thank me by being happy and enjoying your new body and your new life. Also, I want us to be friends forever. I’ve never met anyone so sweet and gentle, and I never want to lose you.”

“Well, if I go missing you better come looking for me. What happens now…do I lie here until I’m able to go home?”
Mom shrugged her shoulders. “I guess so. We have your laptop. I don’t think web surfing is too strenuous.”

I thought for a few seconds. “Remember the story about the 5 blind men and the elephant? Each had a different opinion of what the elephant was like based on what part of the elephant they touched. If someone asks me about Thailand, I’ll say, ‘Thailand is like a clean, white ceiling’. That’s about all I’ll see...or care to see. I have nothing against Thailand, but I’ve been homesick since we left the ground in Houston.”

Mom nodded, “I agree. The minute the doctors hint that you’re able to travel, we’ll be headed home.”

Amie smiled, “That apple didn’t fall from the tree.”

I explained, “You know what a Texan says when he’s been somewhere he doesn’t want to visit again? ‘I didn’t leave anything there.’ Well, I’m leaving something here…but it’s not something I’ll ever want to come back for.”

The doctors came into the room. Both were smiling. Dr. Adams spoke, “Well, the patient is going to live.”

“What a relief”, I responded. “The question is, ‘how long does the patient have to live away from home?’”

“You should be able to travel in a matter of days. You may not miss any school at all.” Dr. Adams seemed almost as eager to get home as my mom and me. “Dr. Chet will be coming to Texas for a visit in few weeks. I warned him that once he sees Texas, he might never want to leave.”

“Thank you, Dr. Chet. Thank you, Dr. Adams. The words seem inadequate.”

“You’re welcome, sweet girl. I hope I get to see you when I come to Texas.”

“I’ll make sure of it.” I knew when Dr. Adams said that…I knew I would see Dr. Chet again.

Dr. Adams continued, ”Dr. Chet and I are going to see his patients; Dr. Chet’s wife is going to take the ladies to town for shopping. Jamie, you can get on your laptop or rest. Someone will check on you frequently. OK?”

“OK. Thanks again to both you. Bye now.”

Everyone left the room except Amie. “Want me to stay? There’s nothing out there I want to buy.”

“Go ahead. I’ll be fine.”

“OK. Get some rest and do some healing. Bye.” She kissed me on the lips…a real kiss.

“I’m afraid the top half of me is all that’s available right now. But I think that in a few weeks I’m gonna have the other half…and It’s gonna be good.”

“Yes. Very good. Rest now, sweetie.” She kissed me again and left to go shopping for stuff she neither wanted nor needed.

I was alone…staring at the clean, white ceiling. I thought about getting on the web, but felt relaxed and content to just lie there and let my eyes close and think about was would be happening in the next few days…the next few weeks. Suddenly, I thought of my dad. He didn’t know that he no longer had a son. I wanted him to know. I wanted him to realize that I would not be stumbling in his footsteps. The bad memories dissipated and I remembered the few times my dad smiled at me or held me. He was not soft like my mom, but hard and strong. Once I hit him on the arm just to see how hard it was. It was like hitting a wall. He just looked at me and said, “Be still”. Now, I felt a twinge of pity for him. Where was he? Was he even alive? Maybe it was better that I didn’t know. I visualized him lying in an alley with an empty whiskey bottle in his hand. Even he didn’t deserve that. I wanted to see him. I wanted him to tell me I’m pretty. I wondered about the likelihood of that. I realized how little I knew about him. His reaction to me could be anywhere from complete acceptance to a scene requiring police intervention. I whispered a short prayer for my dad. I asked God to let me see him again. I decided to tell my mom how I felt. I hoped I could tell her without hurting her feelings.

Various nerves below my waist began sending signals to my brain that they were waking up. I smiled when I thought about nerves waking up confused about everything down there being rearranged. I could imagine them talking among themselves about the missing parts and wondering what the new cavern was for. Maybe some of them would say they heard rumors about 2 new mountains growing up north. The estrogens would say, “It’s true. The mountains are part of our work. We were introduced into the body just in time. The testosterones were preparing to do some major damage, but the blockers came in with us and decimated them. While you nerves slept, a big knife came in and destroyed the system that was supplying new testosterones, and made the rest of these changes. We must continue our work. Generally, our job is fat and hair distribution. We differentiate the body from a body damaged by testosterone. We also prepare the body for caring for a child. Unfortunately, this body is missing some of the equipment required for conception and childbearing, but that is not our concern.” Also present were some burly armed guards…the antibiotics. They stood ready to kill on sight any infection and allow the body to naturally heal. I would say the drugs were bringing on such thoughts, but I could think some pretty silly things without any drugs.

A nurse came to check on me. I told her I thought I needed something for pain. She injected medicine into the tube running to my arm. It didn’t take long for the relaxed feeling to come back. I thought to myself, “This is why people get addicted to drugs.” I vowed to never become an addict. The nerves went back to sleep while the hormones and antibiotics continued their work.

I couldn’t sleep, however. I grabbed my laptop and arranged it best I could to work from a horizontal position. I decided to go shopping myself…more like window shopping. Get it…”windows shopping”? Very funny…I know.

The first thing I did was change my desktop picture. It still had the topless photo of Amie that she had put on it. I made sure to save the photo, then changed the desktop to just a plain blue background.

I went to Victoria’s Secret and Zappos. I was looking for tight fitting pants, jeans, shorts, Capri’s, etc. I wanted to show off my new body. No more bulges except where bulges were supposed to be. I thought about buying something so tight it looked like it was painted on, but then realized how trashy that would look. I needed something tight enough to show that I was a female without telling the world that I was a slut. It really didn’t matter right now. Like I said, I was only window shopping. Then, I realized that when Mrs. Adams, Amie, and my mom came back from shopping, I would probably have more clothes than I could wear in a year or two. They would not be shopping for themselves. I would probably be the topic of their conversation and the object of the entire shopping trip. Maybe a few trinkets for themselves, but mostly, “Oh, Jamie would be precious in this.” There was nothing I could do about it. I just had to be appreciative, and I was sure that most of their purchases would be adorable.

I switched my web surfing to colleges. It wouldn’t be all that long until both Amie and I would need to start making career decisions and basing our college choice on those decisions. The thought of Amie and me going to different colleges was dreadful. I didn’t think I could stand it. Maybe Amie and I needed some time apart? Oh…hell no! We had to go to the same college even if I had to major in basket weaving or candle making.

What about after college? She had hinted that we would always be together, but things happen…people change. Laws had recently been changed so that we could be married as two females. I couldn’t see myself asking her to marry me. That just wasn’t how we were. No, that decision would have to come from her. I was sure my mom would have no problem with it but wasn’t sure about Amie’s parents. They would want grandchildren, and such wonderful people should have grandchildren. So Amie would have to do the childbearing. Maybe we could get some Einstein quality sperm from a sperm bank. Now I realized I was getting ahead of myself. I was still in Thailand staring at the clean, white ceiling.

I wandered aimlessly around the web…took some quizzes, looked at news. There was no good news, of course, so I started looking at some of the photos I had on my computer. There were very few new photos, and I realized I needed to get my digital camera out and start taking photos again. Of course, every photo had to go through Photoshop before it could be printed or put up on the web. Every photo needed some kind of work. Some just need lighting or color adjustments. Others needed unwanted people or objects removed. I looked at my photos and found one of Amie I could work on. She couldn’t be made any more beautiful, of course, so I did whatever adjustments I could think of. Then, it occurred to me to put her face on some of the outfits I had looked at earlier. It didn’t matter what outfit I chose, Amie looked good in anything. Of course, she looked good in nothing also, but I steered clear of anything like that. It just seemed disrespectful.

I shut down the laptop and closed my eyes. I was tired. Major surgery puts a lot of stress on the body. I let myself drift off to sleep.

I was awakened by the ladies returning from their shopping trip. I was right about their purchases. They showed me a few of the things they had bought for me. I had to admit, they were beautiful. They asked me how I felt. I got the impression they thought I would be well down the road to recovery. It’s true; I would have gone home immediately if someone would be willing to carry me to a plane. Dr. Adams could give me a knockout pill again and I would be home in Texas in what would seem like a matter of minutes.

As if they heard my thoughts from another room, both doctors came into my room. Dr. Adams floored us with, “How about we all go home tomorrow?”

I did my “mouth breather” impersonation again. Amie gave me a look of disapproval and I shut my mouth quickly. “Really”, I asked, “how?”

“I’ve arranged with an old friend to borrow his private jet. It’s on its way over here now. It will be equipped with all the equipment needed to transport you home. It will be just the 5 of us, 2 pilots, and 2 flight attendants. As much as I enjoy visiting with Dr. Chet, I need to get back to my patients and your mom needs to get back to her clients. I think if she doesn’t get back soon, a couple of them could get ‘the chair’.” He looked at my mom and smiled. She smiled and shook her head.

“I sent them legal advice”, she added. “I told them, ‘don’t sit down.’”

“Good!” said Dr. Adams. “I hope they listen to you better than some of my patients listen to me.”

I turned to Dr. Chet. “Please don’t be offended that we’re leaving so fast, but I need Texas air to heal.”

Dr. Chet shook his head. “Homesickness is real. I haven’t checked, but I’ll bet it’s listed in the medical journals. As far as I know, there’s only one cure…home.”

I lay back, “Now I won’t be able to sleep. I’m waiting on a plane.”

“It will be here very early in the morning, but I think the crew will need some rest before taking off again.”

“Dr. Adams”, I said thoughtfully, “you’re so amazing, I’ll bet if I looked up the word ‘amazing’ in the dictionary, your picture would be there.”

“Well, it’s nice to know that at least one patient thinks I’m not that bad a doctor. I’ll tell you, though; Dr. Chet is an amazing surgeon. I don’t want to get graphic, but I’ll tell you that you will benefit from his skill for the rest of your life. Rest, Jamie. Your ride is on its way. Texas is missing 5 Texans, but we won’t be missing much longer.”

I lay back again and everyone left except Amie. I thought for a little, then told her, “I can’t imagine what it’s like to have such a wonderful dad. I’ve been thinking about my dad. I want him to know he has a daughter. It just occurred to me that if he’s on drugs when I tell him, it might do something to his mind. He might not be able to process the information.”

“We’ll find him”, Amie assured me. “That will be our project when we get home. Of course, we better see what your mom has to say about it.”

“I hope it doesn’t hurt her feelings that I want to see him.”

“I don’t think it will. It’s natural that you want to see him. She may know more about where he is and what he’s doing than you think.”

I was pretty sure Amie was right. She seemed to understand a lot about such things. Once again, I had Amie to guide me about this subject. I lay back, closed my eyes and relaxed a bit while I waited for my ride.

It turned out that the person lending the private jet to Dr. Adams was not from Texas. He was a billionaire from Utah. The pilot, co-pilot and flight attendants were family and friends of the owner of the jet. It was obvious from their actions that the man put a high value on poise and character. Any airline would be glad to have these crew members as employees. They all worked for the billionaire but volunteered for this flight. When one of us asked for something, it seemed as though they knew the request was coming and were merely waiting for it to be verbalized. They actually accomplished the seemingly impossible task of providing better service than ANA. Actually, the comparison is unfair, because the ANA flight attendants had a much greater number of passengers to attend.

I was brought into the plane on a stretcher with medicine bags on hangers. I didn’t need to be knocked out on this flight. I was relaxed by the medication going directly into my veins. I lay there and watched movies with Amie. I usually watch movies vicariously. I live them. This has enabled me to have a great number of varied experiences despite my young age. I have been stuck on an elevator during a hurricane while I was pregnant. I’ve had half my family gunned down by a rival mob. I’ve had my presidential plane taken over by traitors, etc. There are at least two results of this. First, I remember movies in great detail. Second, after a movie that involves a great amount of drama, I feel exhausted from the stress. My mom says she just “watches” a movie. I think I get a lot more out of a movie than she does. If I start watching a movie that I can’t get into, I get bored and quit watching it. Even if I’ve already seen a movie and I know exact what going to happen, I still feel the suspense and the stress.

Watching movies on this flight, however, I was too drugged to get stressed. I would watch for a while, then let my eyes close for a while, open my eyes and watch Amie for a while. While I was on drugs, she would have been even more beautiful, but that wasn’t possible. I was relaxed…I was going home…I was happy. My life couldn’t be better.

Suddenly, the pilot’s intercom clicked to life. “SAFETY BELTS EVERYONE…NOW!”.

Everyone was already seated, but I heard a click from the safety belt of one of the flight attendants. There was a humming sound that got louder and higher in pitch. Time stood still for a couple of seconds … then the humming quickly increased in volume to an ear-splitting level and became a “whoosh”, and the sound began to decrease in volume and lower in pitch. The change in pitch was similar to the way a whistle of a passing train changes pitch as it passes. Our plane began spinning. We seemed to be out of control. Anything that was not fastened was thrown around the cabin. Coffee cups, paper plates, and napkins were floating through the air. The air masks dropped and were whipped around. I finally managed to grab my mask and looked at Amie. She was holding her mask to her face and was reaching to help with mine when I got it. It seemed forever that the plane spun and headed down toward the ocean.

I prayed. “Oh, God please let….”

Then…quiet. The tumbling stopped. All the flying debris fell to the floor. What happened? Were we still going down? No! We had leveled out and were flying again! No one spoke. Everyone was too shocked to talk. We waited for the pilot to speak. After several seconds, he spoke, “Ladies and gentleman, what we just experienced was a very close encounter with a commercial jet. That jet passed us on its way down and has now crashed into the ocean. Had that plane’s trajectory been just a few yards different, we would have been involved in a mid-air crash. It would have been very unlikely that anyone on either plane would have survived. Given the speed at which the plane went down, it’s unlikely that there will be survivors of that crash. We all should thank God for sparing us as well as praying for a miracle for the people on that plane, and praying for the families of those passengers. The loss of lives will certainly be great and tragic. There will be much heartbreak and sorrow. We don’t understand why those dozens of lives were lost, but God saw fit to spare the few of us on this plane. Even though we don’t understand…we should be thankful now and for the rest of our lives. Our flight will continue. We are not equipped to attempt any rescue. First responders are on their way. When we land, we will likely all be debriefed about what we heard and saw. We probably can’t provide much useful information, but the investigators will want to get any and all information they can. Please try to relax. This was an extremely unusual event. Our plane’s instrumentation shows no damage, but we will be very careful to watch for any indication of possible problems.”

Again, I prayed. Not a beautiful prayer intended for people to hear… but a message from my lips to God's ear, “ThankyouGod. ThankyouGod. ThankyouGod. ThankyouGod. ThankyouGod. ThankyouGod.” I don’t know how many times I said it, but I wanted God to know I was sincere.

In times of stress, a person can think unusual thoughts or notice things that seem trivial. I noticed that the captain referred to his passengers as “Ladies and gentleman”. He was under more stress than any of us, yet he referred to us in that manner because the people he was addressing, the passengers and flight attendants, consisted of 6 females and 1 male. Even though he, minutes ago, had the lives of nine people depending on his ability to steady a large piece of machinery which was tumbling through the air at hundreds of miles an hour, he was still in control enough to be certain that one letter in a sentence was correct, i.e.: “gentleman” with an “a” instead of the usual “gentlemen”. I couldn’t help but be in awe of anyone so cool. He didn’t learn that in flight school. He had to have been taught self-discipline from the time he was very young. I wanted to thank this man. I wanted to even see such a man. God saved us, but He used this man, giving him decades of preparation for the few seconds required for him to complete a task that very few people on earth could have handled.

The flight attendants were cleaning up the spilled cups, etc. They acted as though we had just run into a bit of bad weather. I guess the “poise” that I mentioned earlier ran deeper than I thought. They weren’t smiling, though. We had just passed within a few hundred feet of many people who were now dead. Their relatives would soon be getting phone calls from “the authorities” which would change their lives. They would be incredulous … the first stage of grieving. The press would be putting microphones in their faces, asking, “How do you feel?” and snapping pictures. I wondered if any of the pictures would include a wide-eyed child wondering where her parents were.

With that thought, my brain sent a message to my heart. My heart forwarded that message to my eyes. My eyes responded by activating the tear ducts. Since I was lying down, the tears ran back into my ears. Amie looked at me and just said, “Yeah. I know.” Did I see a tear in her eye? She could be vicious when attacked, but she was actually a sensitive person in her own way.

I lay back and thought about what I would tell the “authorities”.

Authorities: “What did you see?”

Me (making my eyes as big as I can): “I didn’t see nuffin’”.

Authorities: “What did you hear?”

Me (making my eyes as big as I can): “I didn’t hear nuffin’”.

I know they have a job to do, but I don’t like bureaucrats, and would relish a chance to piss one off. I get the word “nuffin” from … where else … a movie! Gone with the Wind, “I don’t know nuffin’ about birfin’ no babies!”

I smiled at the thought of a frustrated, angry bureaucrat. I lay back, closed my eyes and waited for the confrontation.

My name is Adam Jackson Harris. Everybody calls me A. J. I don’t think a lot of them know my real name ... or forgot it. I’m in the 10th grade, and my life is pretty boring … school, eat, sleep, but girls like me and I love them! Nothing exciting ever happened to me until I went on a cruise with my mom and dad during Christmas break.

It was the first time I had ever been on a cruise. We flew to Florida heading to The Bahamas. We sailed at night, so by the next morning we were well out into the Atlantic. We awoke that first morning to see the most beautiful blue water I have ever seen. I live on the Gulf Coast of Texas, and the water in the Gulf of Mexico is brown. The Atlantic Ocean is just awesome.

The cruise was awesome. You see food … you eat it … all you want. I must have eaten 20 ice cream cones the first day. There were four or five pools of different sizes on the ship and a water slide! Plus, there were beautiful girls everywhere. I wished I could live on that ship.

On the second full day at sea, I was standing on the deck admiring the blue ocean water when I saw a giant explosion over the water. It was like a giant fireball high in the sky. I don’t know how far away it was, but it took about 3 or 4 seconds for the sound to reach us. People around me saw it, too. They were watching in amazement and wondering what it was.

Then, a voice came over the ships intercom telling everyone to take cover right away. They said that there was an explosion and there might be some shrapnel falling out of the sky. I stepped back into a door just behind me and actually heard something hitting our ship.

I saw a small object hit the deck and slide, landing on the other side of the door. I opened the door just enough to pick it up. It was an old ball point pen. The top part of the pen was flat and was made of silver colored plastic. I put it in my pocket.

After a few minutes, we were told to go to our cabins right away. I met my parents there. A cruise employee came on the T.V. in our cabin. He said that there had been a collision of two aircraft and we should stay in our cabins. He apologized for the inconvenience but said it was for our safety. He also said that if we saw any “foreign” object on the ship that we should not pick them up, but tell a crew member about it. My dad said that the ship was probably going toward the collision to see if there were any survivors. I started to tell him about the pen but decided not to tell anyone. I went into the restroom and got the pen out again to look at it. There were no markings on it. I wondered who it belonged to. Whoever the owner was … they were probably dead. I put the pen into my suitcase. I had a souvenir.

We were in our cabin for a very long time. When we came out the cruise had continued. We saw some U. S. Navy ships, but there was no sign of the airplanes or anything from them. I was kind of glad not to see any bodies floating in the water or anything. We learned later that there were no survivors on either plane involved in the crash.

When I got home, I put the pen in safe place in my room. Every once in a while, I look at it and wonder about the person who owned it before me. I guess I’ll never know anything about them except that they died in a fiery plane crash.

That makes me sad, but there’s nothing I can do about it.

Our flight continued. We were told to divert to New York for debriefing, but when the pilot made the plane’s billionaire owner aware of it, that order was quickly rescinded and we were able to go straight home. Score: one for the people, zero for the bureaucrats. I loved it. It helps when the people have lots of money and connections. What about my confrontation? Didn’t happen. I pictured myself sitting down for debriefing with an old man with a clipboard. It turned out to be an intelligent, attractive young woman named “Laura”. She was everything you would not expect of a bureaucrat, and I had no desire to be uncooperative with her.

When we all finished debriefing, Dr. Adams had a large van take us home. He and my mom moved me to my bed. I was tired, but felt refreshed just to be home. I had internet and TV. I said to my brain, “Brain … take a message to nerve cells, muscles, fat cells and other aspects of the body located below the waist: You will be receiving limited requests for movement. Divert as much of your resources as possible to healing. Be prepared over the next couple of weeks to gradually be resuming normal activity.”

My message must have gotten through. Healing went much faster than the doctor expected. Amie was amazing. We didn’t have to hire a nurse because she was there so much to help me. When we took the catheter out, I made a horrible mess in the bathroom because of swelling. I thought of my dad when I saw the mess I made. Amie cleaned it up. Imagine that … a spoiled, teen aged girl with wealthy parents spending her Christmas helping a friend recover from surgery. OK … scratch the word “spoiled.” I won’t go into any more gross aspects of my recovery. Amie seemed not to be bothered by any of it. She didn’t even tell any friends we were home so I wouldn’t have a lot of visitors interrupting during the day.

There were times I lay in my bed and thought about how unfair it was to have to go through all this to be normal. I didn’t complain to anyone, though, because I knew it wouldn’t do any good. I tried to walk a little more each day to speed my recovery. I began looking forward to returning to school, but I wanted to see if I could go back without anyone there knowing I had undergone surgery.

Mom always worked long hours, but now she had to catch up on work that piled up while she was gone. Many days, she came home with more clothes for me. I told her if she didn’t stop buying, we would need a bigger house. I could tell by her reaction that I had put an idea in her head.

When I was able to get out, Amie told me, “I want you to come to the hospital with me to visit a sick friend. It’s actually someone you know, but I’m not gonna tell you who. It’s a surprise. Put on your yellow dress. It looks great on you.”

I found the yellow dress in my closet and slipped it on. I found it was too small in the chest and even shorter than before. I must have grown 2 inches in height and several ounces in the chest. I change into a blue dress that I didn’t have to pull on the hem. As I was admiring myself in the mirror, Amie walked in. “Wow that’s cute, too. What’s wrong with the yellow one?”

“Well, it’s fine if I want to show off my panties to Houston, I can barely get it buttoned on top, and it’s tight in the hips.” I twisted around and looked at my rear end. Then looked at her. “You like big butts?”

“Oh yeah, I like that one. But, of course, that’s not all I’m interested in. “She changed her tone, faked an accent and held her hands up like an attacking bear. “I vant to fondle your brain. I get to zee butt later.” Then, she eyed my chest and dropped the theatrics.” Oh. You’re a growing girl … all over.”

I smiled. “Yep, up and out.”

She smiled back. “We better go before things get out of hand.” I had to agree.

We got into the Corvette and started out for the medical center. I had forgotten how rough the ride was in her car. It didn’t help that she always drove about one and one-half times the speed limit. We pulled into the parking garage and went into the hospital and went to the fourth floor. We went to the end of the hall and she said, “Wait here. I want to tell my friend you’re coming.” She went back down the hall and into a room. After a few minutes, she came back and got me. As we approached the room, she whispered, “Don’t look at the name on the door. I don’t want to spoil the surprise.” She opened the door to the room and motioned for me to go in first. I went in, almost afraid. I couldn’t imagine who it might be.

There in the hospital bed was my dad! He was smiling. “Hello, Jamie. My, you’ve changed!”

I was too stunned to speak, so Amie broke the silence. “Your mom told me where he was. I came up here yesterday and told him everything that has happened.” She turned to my dad. “Tell her what you think, Mr. Simms.”

“Well, Jamie,” he began, “I can see that you have a propensity to buck the system, and I can tell you where you get that.” He pointed to himself. “I was always reluctant to ‘go along with the program’. There were times that got me into trouble. I’m not surprised that you’re like me in that regard, but I would never have guessed something like this.” He looked me over. “I have a beautiful daughter.”

I wanted to hug him, but I didn’t feel comfortable doing that. “Thanks, dad, but where have you been? What have you been doing? Why are you in the hospital?”

“Whoa! I knew you’d have lots of questions, but slow down. First, I never left Houston. I had to dry out. I had to dig into my retirement money and get an apartment, then I contacted some old co-workers from the refinery and was able to get a position as a chemical engineer. I wanted to contact your mom, but I never could bring myself to do it. As far as being in the hospital, I had acute appendicitis. I’m fine, though. I was laying here yesterday and an angel appeared.”

“An angel?” I wondered if my dad was having hallucinations.

He motioned toward Amie. “Your friend here is an angel who brought you to me.” I pretty much failed to be a father to my son. I hope you’ll give me a chance to be a father to my daughter.”

I was hesitant. “Well … yeah …”

“It’s OK, Jamie. I didn’t expect to be welcome with open arms. Give it time. I expect to get out of here today,” he looked toward the door, “and get back to work. I’m enjoying my job. We have a big project going right now. I’d tell you about it, but you’d get bored. That’s way more than enough about me, though. What else is new with you and your mom? Any other news would pale in comparison to this.” He motioned toward me. I sent word to her that I was here, but I didn’t know if she got it. I see your mom’s name in the paper once in a while when she’s on a big case. She kicks ass in court, doesn’t she?”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t want to go up against her in court. Did Amie tell you that I wanted to look you up?”

“That’s why she came to see me and arranged this meeting. She’s an angel and she’s a brilliant girl. I can see why you two are friends. We had your I. Q. tested, you know. Usually in the offspring of parents with above average intelligence like your mom and me“, he cleared his throat to soften the braggadocio of the remark, “there is ‘regression toward the mean’, but it turns out that your I. Q. is higher than either of ours. We agreed that we wouldn’t want it any other way.”

This piqued Amie’s interest. “Wow! What’s her I. Q.?”

“I don’t remember the numbers. Her mom probably still has the scores in her files. She a great one for keeping things filed.”

Amie looked happy. “One project completed, a new one beginning.”

My dad looked puzzled, so I explained, “Finding you was our project.”

Dad nodded that he understood. Amie handed him a small piece of paper. “Here’s our emails. Send us your address and maybe we can come by some time. I have pretty reliable transportation.”

I looked at her. “Yeah, a Corvette.”

“Yeah, but it’s 2 years old,” she responded with faux defensiveness.

My dad expressed pity. “Oh, you poor thing! You’re probably embarrassed to be seen in it.” I could see that my dad and Amie would get along great.

Amie went along with that. “Yeah. I keep some dark glasses in the car in case I see someone I know.”

My dad kept it up. “Maybe your dad could scrape up the money to buy you something better, but I’ve seen the shack you live in … maybe not … poor fellow.”

At this point, I began to wonder what was going on. “Amie, what are ya’ll talking about? Your dad…”

“Stop!” Amie held up her hand to stop. She addressed my dad again. “Jamie has a difficult time understanding sarcasm, and can’t understand jokes very well.”

“Well, that’s her mom there.”

I decided to shut up and let them have their banter. Who knew when they were serious or not?

Long story short (too late) … my visit to see Amie’s “friend” successfully reunited my dad and me. That began to fill an empty space within me.

Back to school day is here. We decided to fly even though we had just barely escaped disaster. We didn’t figure lightning would take a second shot at us, and neither of us wanted to endure the long drive in the Corvette again. I was happy not to have the specter of surgery hanging over my head. My new parts were still tender, but could hardly wait to take them out into the world.

Amie and I both had begun to think about career decisions. I admired Dr. Adams and the resources he had available to him that enabled him to help people. A career in medicine would enable me to help the most vulnerable among us. I thought again about the little girl in the website picture of a bombing. I would probably never know who she was, much less be able to help her or my family. There were millions of people suffering in the world, however, some in distant lands … some in my own city. Maybe I couldn’t make a dent in suffering overall, but I could be a “drop in the bucket”. If I go into medicine, I decided, I would be the very best “drop” I could be.

Amie had also been observing her dad; she felt that her dad’s statement indicating that his patients frequently don’t listen to him gave her some new insight into the medical profession. Obviously, Amie was a controlling person and if she went through all those years of medical school, began a practice, then had her patients not care enough about their own health to listen to her advice would be extremely frustrating for her. What my dad said about my mom kicking ass in court, however, really appealed to Amie, however. She liked the idea of being around people who had little choice but to heed her advice. Of course, her interaction with a judge might be interesting. Even with seemingly no leverage, she always seemed to have things her way.

Amie was not cruel. She just always thought she was right. That can be an annoying trait, but Amie was almost always right. She was not only super intelligent, but she was wise beyond her years. I think wisdom and common sense go hand in hand, and I had little of either.

Amie was a parent’s dream. It’s hard for me to imagine her ever giving her parents trouble. Maybe she pitched a fit once when one of her parents wanted to play checkers instead of chess. I figure that’s the kind of thing about which she would give them trouble. I’m pretty sure there was no issue about boys, and her parents were probably aware by now of the reason for that.

My mom and Amie’s parents took us to the airport. Hobby Airport was much closer and a lot less crowded than Bush International. We had a limited amount of luggage. Amie’s dad would send the van with the rest our “necessities”. The flight to San Antonio, taxi to the school and check-in at school were all uneventful. We got to our room early in the afternoon, and I started trying on pants, jeans, Capri’s, etc.

Amie was watching. Finally, she spoke up. “Any of those looks great on you. Why the difficulty deciding?”

“Today is the last day we don’t have to wear school uniforms. I want to make sure I show I’ve got nothing to hide. I’m proud of my new configuration and I want to show it off … without being trashy.”

“I’ve seen some things that would look trashy on other girls, but you have class. It’s kinda hard for someone with so much class to look trashy.”

“Thanks.” I thought about that. It’s the kind of thing she would understand. I realized that I couldn’t afford to pay someone to provide the help and advice I get from her.

Amie smiled, “The yellow dress would show you off really well.”

“Yes, until the first teacher sees me and sends me back to the dorm to change. I want pants so I don’t have to be pulling on a hem.”

Amie went to her closet and brought out some lightweight, white jeans. “These are really too small for me. See if you can squeeze into them.”

I squeezed. They zipped with a little trouble. I stood at the mirror and turned around for a look. It was easy to see that I was wearing red panties. Amie was right one more time. They showed off my entire bottom side. Then I thought of the teachers. “Amie, maybe I just should better forget about being a show off here at school. That’s not why we’re here, and there’s nothing to be gained by agitating the teachers.”

“Hmm, very wise.”

“Thanks.”

I found some jeans that fit nicely, but no so tightly as to draw a lot of attention. The fit felt wonderful. Tomorrow, uniforms would be required, but we had a few hours to relax. I started getting my school work in order. Amie was on the web. We worked and relaxed until dinner time.

There were students who hadn’t arrived yet, so the lunchroom was not quite full. Amie and I sat away from everyone else. We had a pretty quiet, uneventful lunch. Finally, I spoke up. “I’m on my way, Amie.”

“You sure are, girlfriend, and I’m proud and happy for you.”

“I’ve been thinking ahead to graduation and after. I’m looking hard at the field of medicine.”

“Well, medicine could use more caring people like you. It’s hard for me to picture you fighting it out in court. Fighting is more my kind of thing. I would like to see your mom in action some time. I don’t think they allow cheering in court, though. I’ll have to restrain myself.”

“I’m sure she wouldn’t mind you going to court with her some time. It would help you see what practicing law is really like. Maybe you could intern for the summer. Would your dad consider letting me intern for him?”

“I’m not sure about the legalities of interning for a doctor, but I’ll bet you could help out in his office and get the feel of a medical practice. Maybe by the end of summer, we’ll both have a better Idea about what we want to do with our lives. We’ll both have a light load for senior year and we can concentrate on getting into the best schools in the country.”

We finished dinner and headed back to the dorm to get into bed early and be rested and ready for a new semester.

Amie went to sleep quickly. I could hear her breathing. Her lungs pulled air into her lungs and utilized the oxygen to feed all the parts of her beautiful mind and body. The bible says that God made man “a little lower than the angels”. In Amie’s case, it wasn’t much lower. Such a combination of beauty, brains and talent were rare.

My physical change from male to female was fast. Factors affecting that speed were my age, my small stature, and the immense amount of help from the people close to me. I was to a point that virtually no one would be able to “read” me. My hair was growing fast and thick. It felt strange to feel it on my back and shoulders. It felt good to not have anyone say, “Get a haircut!” The mental change was much slower. I was still somewhat self-conscious, but that was decreasing. It helped to look in the mirror and see that, obviously, it was a girl looking back. It was a pretty girl, too. I don’t mean to brag when I say that … just stating a fact. Day by day, I was slowly moving from a transsexual mentality to just living as a girl.

Being at an all girls' school helped my transition. I was able to emulate those around me without the interference of boys. I never thought that my sexual preference would change and, so far, I was right. Even though the girls at school were beautiful, however, I didn’t actually get aroused just looking at them. At times, I felt somewhat envious but tried to keep in mind that I couldn’t have it all. There will always be someone with bigger breasts, nicer legs or prettier hair, but I had my share of girls envying me.

It always came back to Amie. We were both females now, but loving her felt so natural that the idea of a relationship with a man seemed foreign and strange. No amount of intelligence would help me know whether I was truly in love. Matters of the heart are an entirely different realm. It’s a realm where eidetic memory and super high intelligence offer no special advantage … a realm where two plus two might equal purple. Love has been the spark that started wars … with jealousy the kindling. So important is love to society that it’s recognized in our laws. I wondered if the writers of those laws understood love any more than I. I doubt it. Also, love has different meanings to different people. Was all the help and support Amie had given me in my transition provided out of love? If not love, then what? Maybe she was a man hater who fantasized about castrating a male. With such wonderful parents, I couldn’t see her developing such psychological issues. I wouldn’t admit to her that such a thought crossed my mind. My mind was wandering now. It’s a good thing a mind can’t get lost by wandering. My mind would have been gone a long time ago.

When I thought of Amie, she stirred a bit and turned over on her side. She took a big breath, didn’t wake up. It was almost like she heard my thoughts. That would not be a big surprise. What would surprise me about Amie would be something she couldn’t do.
I laid back and started relaxing every part of my body, starting with my feet and progressing upward. It was a good way to beat insomnia. Soon, I drifted off to an undisturbed, restful sleep.

On the first day of the new semester, we awakened to a cold, rainy morning. The combination of rain and temperatures below 40 degrees brought hope for snow to those of us from the southern part of Texas. Houston gets a small amount of snow about every 10 years, and I remembered a snowfall when I was much younger. San Antonio, however, was even farther south than Houston.
Still, to me the cold and rain were exhilarating. The buildings were not far apart, so we didn’t have to walk outside a lot. It was a little difficult for me to concentrate on schoolwork when the rain was painting beautiful patterns on the window pane. Once, after the teacher droned on for a while about The Constitution, I heard “Jamie?”. I quickly snapped out of my dream and took a few seconds to “run the tape back”. Ah! There it was! Question and answer! “Thomas Jefferson”, I replied confidently. I think I saw the teacher smile and shake her head slightly as if to say, “Thought I had her that time”. I sat up straighter at my desk…determined to quit dreaming. The incident drew an amused smile from Amie. She puckered her lips so slightly that I would be the only one to notice. I smiled and drew renewed encouragement from this subtle show of affection.

Yet, I remained pensive on that cold, rainy day. I allocated just enough of my brain to function academically and socially while thinking about my life. So much had changed in the past months. All the changes were for the better. I was happier than I had ever been. I looked down at the hem of my skirt. Part of the fun of being a girl is the almost unlimited array of wonderful clothing that was available … and here I was wearing a dull school uniform. I had more than one closet full of beautiful apparel before I left home and, if I knew my mom, the inventory had grown a lot in my absence.
Yes, life was great. There was always a feeling, however, that something had to go wrong. This perfect existence could not last. I thought of a song my mom liked:
Well it’s been building up inside of me
for oh I don't know how long.
I don't know why but I keep thinking
something’s bound to go wrong.

These thoughts had to be pushed aside, though, because bad things happen and most of them cannot be predicted or prevented. Thinking about them in advance was a waste of time. I directed my musing toward my life and my place in the world. I wanted the world to be a better place because I lived. I know that sounds trite, but I saw so many people focusing on things that were so unimportant like the latest Star Wars movie or IPhone.
As usual, my thoughts turned to Amie. Could I make her a better person? She was awfully mean to Lauren, but I had to admit that Lauren had it coming, and Lauren came to realize it and apologized. No, finding fault with Amie would not yield much of a harvest. Maybe she was actually an angel. If so, she was my angel!
Amie and I had quickly made the school our own. We didn’t mean to say it was ours only … only that we felt at home there and loved the old buildings, the trees, the fields and the spring that ran through the large, idyllic campus, even the teachers.
Yes … the teachers. The school had a process that enabled it to pick the “cream of the crop”. Every one of our teachers was there because she or he loved teaching. They loved it because it was their calling. I doubt that any of them would leave teaching for twice the salary. We appreciated their talent and dedication because we remembered teachers at our previous school who had no business teaching. It was a struggle for both student and teacher. Of course, the teacher saw the students as the problem. These teachers didn’t stay in teaching positions long. Many viewed teaching as a stepping stone to an “administrative position” with higher pay and little or no contact with students.
The bell signaling the end of class ended this train of thought. I saw that the rain had stopped. I looked forward to a game of volleyball in the cold after school. Sure enough, when school was over the sun was out and we headed to our room to change clothes and had a great time playing until time for dinner. It had warmed up quite a bit, so we were able to wear shorts. I could feel the cool air coming up my shorts, keeping that area nice and comfy. My new sports bra kept my upper body assets secure, so I was able to concentrate on the game. During the game, Amie whispered, “Looking good, girl!” where only I could hear. I replied with a smile.
After volleyball and dinner, we went back to our room. Amie sat on the bed and was looking very thoughtful. “What’s up?” I asked.
“We should discuss what we do after graduation. I’m going to start out in pre-law and I’m pretty sure you want to start in pre-med. We just need to decide where we’re going to start out.”
I was certain, “Rice University”.
Amie’s eyes widened a little, “Wow! It’s hard to argue with that”.
I continued, “My mom and both your mom and dad went there. It’s less than 10 miles from River Oaks. Of course, there is a lot of traffic in those miles, so I think we should get a dorm for the week and we can go home on the weekend.”
“Ok!”
“Just like that?”
“Sure! Sounds great!”
I knew Amie better than that. She had already decided on Rice and was prepared to talk me into going there. That was OK, though. “We have to get admitted.”
“I was admitted the day I was born. I could show up with tattoos and a nose ring and they’d take me. Just so my dad doesn’t withdraw his support from the school. When they see your records they’ll be begging you to ‘come on down’.”
So, when that school ended we had one more year of high school before heading for Rice University. When I got home, however, I would find a big surprise. A new person would come into my life. Would this person change things? If so, how would things change?

We flew first class from San Antonio to Hobby Airport where my mom picked us up for the half-hour trip home. We took Amie to home and helped her get her bags in. As we left Amie’s house, my mom said, “Jamie, I have a surprise for you.”

“Mom, there is nothing I need … really.”

“It’s not actually something for you. I will tell you this much … I’ve been dating someone.”

“Really? Cool! What’s he like? What does he do? Does he …”

“Slow down! You’ll meet this person when we get home.”

“So what’s he like?”

“Well … totally different from your dad.”

“In what way?”

“In almost every way. You’ll see what I mean.”

We pulled up into the driveway at home and I left my bags in the car hurried into the house followed by my mom. I walked into the living room and mom’s new friend stood up to greet me.

From behind me, I heard my mom say, “Hannah, this is my daughter, Jamie. Jamie, meet my girlfriend, Hannah.”

I was speechless. Hannah was tall and slim. She had very short blonde hair which in no way detracted from her femininity, and wore a white tank top with no bra and blue jeans. You could see that her perfect figure was natural and not the result of underclothing squeezing her into shape. Her eyes were so dark that you couldn’t tell the pupil from the iris. Her lips looked like the models on TV in ads selling lipstick. In short … her face was as beautiful as her body. She held my hand and turned to my mom, “Marie, she’s more beautiful than I imagined.”

I tried to speak but choked. My mom stepped up and hugged me as I began to sob. “My goodness, Jamie, what is it? I can’t tell if you’re happy or sad.”

“I’m happy for you, mom.” I managed between sobs. “Ever since dad left, all you’ve done is work. You haven’t had anybody. Then when you told me you were dating, I was afraid we’d get another man in here that pees on the floor.”

Mom and Hanna laughed about that statement. Their laughter was infectious, and I found myself smiling. “Is Hanna gonna live with us.”

“Not right now. We’ll see how it goes.” They exchanged glances and smiled. “Let’s bring in your bags.”

Hanna held up her hand. “Hold on. I’ll get the bags. Ya’ll have some catching up to do.”

Our protests fell on deaf ears, so we went into the living room and sat down to talk.

As we sat down Mom looked at my chest and began, “Jamie, if you keep progressing at this rate you’re going to have trouble carrying them around!”

“It’s hereditary, Mom, I get ‘em from you. Thanks, Mom.” She smiled and shook her head as if there were a problem. “Is something wrong?” I asked.

“No,” she assured me, “it’s just so ironic. When you were born and they said ‘it’s a boy, I would never have imagined that someday you would be thanking me for your boobs.”

I had to smile about that, but I wanted to change the subject. “Where did you meet Hanna? She’s really beautiful, Mom. Is she a model?”
Mom smiled. “I’m sure she could be a model but no, she’s a trust fund kid. Her parents left her a bit of money and she has taught herself how to invest, and has multiplied her funds several times. She works from home on the computer. She came into the office to ask some questions about her investments. I can’t divulge a lot, but I can tell you she’s not in poverty. Yes, she’s beautiful and smart. I feel so good around her. I can’t explain it any better than that.”

Mom was in love! We talked. We talked school, work, Hanna, and Amie. By the time Hanna left and we quit talking, it was late. I could hardly wait to talk to Amie. We had the summer ahead of us and my now my mom was starting a new life.

As I lay down that night flashes of lightning lit up everything every minute or so followed by rumbling thunder. Threatening to most people … promising to a rain-lover like me. The interval between lightning and thunder kept getting shorter. Finally, a bright flash of lightning was followed immediately by a crash of thunder that seemed to shake the house. I could hear a deluge beginning outside. The lightning and thunder became less frequent, but the rain seemed to get harder. It was a perfect potion to promote sleep. I drifted off….

I was awakened by a hand gently stroking my face. I opened my eyes to see Amie lying next to me.

“Your mom let me in. You gonna sleep all day?”

The room was still dark. Why would Amie come wake me in the middle of the night? “What time is it?”

It's 8 AM!

It was still dark because the sky was overcast and it was still raining. “Wow! It’s been a while since I slept this late! The rain helps me sleep. It’s so peaceful.”

“Yeah, your mom is already gone to work. I thought we might go have a look at the Rice campus, but it’s raining so much that a lot of streets will probably soon be flooded.”

“The rain is great, ain’t it?”

“You’re away from school two days and your grammar starts slipping!”

“I’m from Texas. ‘Ain’t’ is a perfectly good word in Texas, just like ‘ya’ll’. Saying ‘ya’ll’ is much better than ‘you guys’ like they say up north, especially when there are no guys around.”

“You’re right. Forgive me. I guess I’ve been watching too much TV. Oh, well, we’re here alone. We have a whole day to kill. Whatever shall we do? Play chess? No, I’d kill you.” She was massaging my shoulders and was leaning over to put her face close to mine.
“I have an idea. For starters, you can quit teasing and kiss me.”

Her reply was a long, deep kiss. Her lips and her body were so warm. I could feel my heart beating. I wanted her closer to me. The only thing that separated us was clothing, so I reached down to the hem of my gown and pulled it over my head. Then I reached down and pulled my panties down to my knees and worked them the rest of the way off with my legs. She got up and pulled her shirt and jeans off that was it. She was naked. She got back in bed on top of me.

I protested, “Why do you get to be on top?”

“Shut up, bitch!” That was all the explanation I needed. Her weight on me … her tongue in my mouth … her breasts pressed against mine were wonderful.

Between kisses I whispered in her ear, “Can I at least have you for breakfast?” Without a word she turned around so she was facing the foot of the bed. I opened my legs as wide as I could. She did the same … offering me the best breakfast I had ever had. I thought of a term I had seen somewhere: “Breakfast of Champions”. I was pretty sure this breakfast no calories or fat.

Then Amie found my abbreviated penis and began to suck it as if she were trying to make it grow back. I reciprocated, wondering if, deep in her heart, she wanted a penis. Maybe not, but to say she had a positive reaction would be a huge understatement. It felt good to excite her. Amie was always in control until now. Of course, that was mutual. Even though I was somewhat in control of her, she was controlling me also. The stimulation was making my heart pound so that it could almost be heard. Finally, I reached a point where I thought I would lose consciousness. I let out a scream … then relaxed my entire body. I felt her relax as well.

It took several seconds to catch my breath. Amie turned back around and laid her head on the pillow next to mine. It was raining harder now, and I drifted into a peaceful sleep. We wouldn’t go visit the college today. We wouldn’t go shopping today. We wouldn’t go to the salon today. None of this means the day was a waste. Amie and I were in love and we were happy. After resting, we would make love again. No matter what happened in my life, I would remember this day.

During summer vacation, Hanna and I became close. She invited me to go to her house when something was bothering me, and I took her up on the offer. At times, we had long talks and found that we saw eye to eye on a number of things.

One evening my mom came home from work and began showering and getting dressed up nice. She and Hanna were going to dinner. She explained that Hannah wanted to discuss something. It sounded kind of serious.

When she left I got on the web and started looking at the Rice University website. I could hardly wait to get out of high school and get started in pre-med. I looked at everything I could find about pre-med and memorized it. After that, I went to the Victoria’s Secret site. “Amie could be a model”, I thought to myself. She had too much brains to waste, though.

It got to be late so I got off the computer and lay across the bed. I wanted to awake when my mom came home to find out what the issue was with Hannah. I drifted off and was awakened by the sound of my mom coming in the door. I got up and went to the living room.

“Oh hey, honey. You’re up late. It’s almost 1 am.”

“What did Hannah have to say?”

“Oh, she just had a gift to give me.” She held out her left hand and showed me a 2 karat diamond engagement ring.

“Y'all are getting married! Well … I guess not legally married…”

“Yes, legally married!”

“But, it’s not legal … is it?”

“You haven’t been watching the news. The Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage today! Hannah has had this ring for a while because she anticipated this ruling.”

I hugged my mom like I would never let go. “Oh, mom, we’re gonna be a family!”

“That’s not all. We’ll be moving to a bigger place. We’re looking at a 3 story house near Dr. Adams. It’s about one bgzillion square feet and more rooms than some motels. There is a separate area we’re thinking about using for a homeless man…”

“Mom! You want to bring a homeless man into our house?! You’re a generous person, but this doesn’t sound like you. There’s a safety issue here!”

“It will be OK once you get to know him. I think a girl should know her dad.”

My dad! That shut me up. I didn’t know what to say. Deep down, I thought I loved my dad. I just didn’t like so many of the things he did.
It seemed that my mom heard my thoughts. “You’re dad is a different person when he’s not drinking or taking drugs. He smart, funny … sexy, too, but that’s irrelevant now. He needs a place to stay and we have more than enough room. The bible says, ‘freely ye have received, freely give.’ We won’t be charging him rent. We don’t need it, so there’s no need to strain his resources while he’s getting back on his feet. I still love him, but I’m no longer in love with him. That part of my life is past. I can’t say I regret those years. Without them, I wouldn’t have you. I can’t imagine life without you.”

“Well, mom, I don’t even want to imagine life without you. It may happen someday, but I push it way to the back of my mind.”
I got into bed and lay awake thinking. I was so proud of my mom for her generosity. My life was going to change even more. It was both exciting and scary. We would have two more people in the house. I would be even closer to Amie.

I thought about the cliché so many people used, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” I heard it so much I wanted to gag. Still, what if it applied to my life? Was I headed for something that would upset my near perfect world? I realized that my euphoric existence was fragile. Despite my desire for frequent solitude, I relied on the support of the wonderful people around me. I seemed to be insulated from the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” I realized that there was really no reason I deserved such bliss, but I was happy to accept it and not willing to give it up.

I finally willed my mind to stop wandering and was able to drift off to sleep and dream. Changes were soon to come. I had to rest to prepare for them.

Mom and Hannah’s wedding was a small affair with just a few friends. The judge was a friend of Mom’s. The honeymoon consisted of going home and going to bed. They put off a real honeymoon for when they had more time to plan.

I had 2 parents again! Best of all … they were both females! I had heard horror tales of dads of daughters who had wanted a boy. Some either ignored their daughter or tried to get her interested in activities or hobbies usually pursued by boys … make her a “Tom-boy”. Imagine that … trying to change the sex of your child! Of course, I was a special case because I was more than willing to change. I tried to imagine a girl wanting to be a boy. That just seemed foreign to me. Why would anyone with a perfectly good female body want to change it to a male body?
Soon, I would have 3 parents. I had a chance to visit the new house and it was incredibly beautiful. It had an Olympic sized pool, exercise room, music studio, (Hannah was also a musician) and a movie theater. Each of the 12 bedrooms had its own large bath.

I was spending a lot of time packing. Even with Amie’s help, it was a slow process because we spent a lot of time trying on clothes. Some of them I had never seen. Mom shopped a lot these days, and the clothes she bought for me went right in the closet. I thought I had the most beautiful clothes in the world. Everything was very feminine. Mom loved her new daughter!

On moving day, I spent the day at Amie’s house. The new house was next door to the house across the street. We thought we would sit on Amie’s porch, do our nails and watch the movers work, but the properties we so large and full of trees we couldn’t see much. My dad showed up and moved what little he had into his separate section. I walked out into the yard where I could see him, and I felt a twinge of pity watching him carry his meager possessions.

At 4 PM, most of our stuff had been moved. Amie and I walked over to work on unpacking. My room was at the end of a hall on the third floor and was very private. There was a large sliding glass door that opened to a balcony. The view was mostly tree tops, but in the distance was the Williams tower pointing from the Galleria to the heavens.

Amie and I admired the view for a few seconds. Then, I turned to her and made a proposition. “Amie, I’m in a big new house, and I might get scared. Could I beg you to spend the night … just tonight … please?”

Amie was silent for a little. I was afraid she might say, “No”.

Finally, she smiled and spoke. “Oh, I guess I could do that for one night. After all, the place is not really a dump.”

We showered, then crawled into the Egyptian Cotton sheets. The bed was comfortable beyond belief! We snuggled a bit, but were so tired that we soon fell asleep holding each other.

Amie headed for home as soon as she woke up. When I woke up, I thought about my life. A lot of girls would kill for a life like mine. Plenty money, bright future, loving people.
I hate my life!
I don’t mean that. It just all suddenly seemed so futile. I hadn’t been to church much, but I had read the bible through as well as some books about the bible written by authors who “knew” hidden meanings in the scripture. I had read about religions other than Christianity and found major flaws in them all.
The bible was not only filled with beautiful prose, it touched on each and every aspect of life. Detractors were many and, if the bible could be disproved it would have by now. Instead, most advances in science actually made the case for the bible stronger. I had two major problems with the bible. Not its validity, but its application to me.
The first was “Male and female created he them…” The bible actually proscribes cross-dressing. Sex reassignment was not addressed, but most scholars don’t believe it would be acceptable.
The second was “what’s the point?” Are we God’s experiment? We live, work, build things, have children…then we die. Was the afterlife like that described in the bible?
My cell lit up and buzzed. I put it on silent and pulled the covers over my head. I just wanted to sleep. I slept.
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“Jamie! Wake up!”
I opened my eyes. Amie was sitting next to me on my bed. “Jamie, it’s four o’clock. Are you sick?”
“Amie, I just don’t feel good. I don’t want to do anything. I feel really tired.”
“You’re depressed?”
“Yeah, I guess. Please let me sleep.”
“OK.”
She left. That was easy. I half expected her to try to drag me out of bed.
I got up, took a bath and dressed. Mom would be home soon. Hannah was somewhere in the house, but she was obviously making it a point to not intrude.
I warmed up some pizza from the fridge and ate about half of it, decided it wasn’t that good and threw the rest away. I went to lie down and wait for Mom to come home. I fell asleep and woke up in the dark. It was 4am. Mom hadn’t awakened me. I closed my eyes and went back to sleep.
Amie came by the next morning. Again, I asked her to leave. This time, however, she wouldn’t leave. She insisted I go see her dad at his office. Reluctantly, I got dressed and let her drag me out of the house and to Dr. Adams’ office.
When we got there, the waiting room was empty and there was a new receptionist. She was reading a copy of “Vogue”.
“We’re going to see my dad,” Amie told the girl.
“Hold on,” said Miss New Girl. “I’ll send you back when he’s ready for you.”
“I’m his daughter, he’ll see me now.” She headed for the door to the hallway. It was locked.
New Girl had a sarcastic smile. “I know who both of you are. Sit down and I’ll send you back when I’m ready. Things are going to change around here because I’m the new office manager and things will go as I say! Now…sit down and please be quite…I’m trying to read.
At this point, I knew Miss New Girl was done for. I cringed a little, preparing for Amie to cloud up and rain all over this arrogant bitch.
Instead, Amie sat down and said, “Yes, ma’am.”
For a moment, I was speechless. I felt the blood rush to my head. My face must have been bright red. I looked at Amie in disbelief. “Amie, what the hell is wrong with you? Are you gonna let this little twerp tell you that you can see your dad whenever you please?”
I got up, walked toward the reception desk and opened my mouth to give this intruder the tongue lashing she deserved, but at the moment Dr. Adams opened the door.
“Come on back, girls.”
We followed him to one of the rooms. He held my chart and looked over it. “How’s it going, girls?”
“Fine, dad,” Amie said matter-of-factly.
Again, I was stunned. “Amie…what the hell is the matter with you?” I turned to Dr. Adams. “You’re not going to believe how your new employee treated your daughter Italicsand me. You might not believe this….”
Dr. Adams held up his hand for me to stop. “Amie tells me you’ve been a bit depressed.”
I was surprised and confused that he would not even want to hear a complaint from us by an employee of his. “Yeah, I’ve been a little down.”
“Sleeping a lot?”
“Yeah…I’ve been feeling so tired.”
“How do you feel now?” He folded his arms.
“I….” What? Why is he asking me that? Nothing has changed! Nothing, that is, except I couldn’t wait to get back to the front of the office and scratch the eyes out of a smartass little bitch! But wait…how do I feel? I was angry, but the depression was gone like magic! “Oh. I feel better, actually.”
Dr. Adams smiled. “When Amie told me how you were acting, I knew it had to be depression. Instead of medicating you, I set up this little experiment.” He pushed the button on the intercom. “Kaye, could you come on back?”
Miss New Girl came in the door smiling.
“Kaye is the daughter of a friend of mine. She’s a nurse, but she enjoys acting in local theater productions. Based on your reaction, she must be pretty good.”
Kaye curtsied and said “Thank you. It was the most fun acting job I ever had. The look on Jamie’s face was priceless!”
Dr. Adams continued. “I arranged for you to get angry because anger can cause your body to release adrenaline. Adrenaline can overcome depression.”
“You were so distracted; you didn’t realize that this is my dad’s off day,” Amie interjected. “That’s why the office was empty.”
“This type of therapy is not in the medical books,” Dr. Adams warned us. “We’re almost family, though, so let’s keep it among us in our little group. Besides, it probably wouldn’t work again because you would be wise to my little trick if I tried it again. Let’s hope you don’t need this 'therapy' again.”
“Thank you so much, Dr. Adams.” I turned to Kaye, “Thank you, Kaye. Wow! What a difference a few minutes makes! If Dr. Adams hadn’t stopped me, he would have been dealing with a case of ‘scratched out eyes’.”
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As we left the doctor’s office, I thought about the complexities of the human mind. I was almost certainly going after a medical degree. Now, I thought about psychiatry as a specialty.

Summer vacation ended. Our senior year began with both Amie and I needing very few credits for

graduation. This gave us time for career research with a lot of free time also. We had both decided on

our majors. Amie would study law, I was going into medicine. Now that I had decided on a direction, I

was anxious to get started. I had heard horror stories about the hours required of interns, but had my

mind made up that nothing would deter me from the path I had chosen.

Amie spent a lot of time reading books about law. She envied my eidetic memory and asked me to try to

teach her how it worked. I tried, and she seemed to be better able to remember the things she read. I

had no doubts that she would do fine in pre-law and law school. With her ability to “read” people,

combined with her intelligence and natural charm, she would breeze through it. With my eidetic

memory, I would graduate with an encyclopedic knowledge of everything medical in my head. We were

both at the top of our class, but I asked Amie to help me make sure she beat me out for valedictorian. I

could handle a short, introductory speech, but a longer valedictory was more up her alley.

So far, my life has been almost too good to be true, so I will cease this documentary for now. The future

Bye for now, Jamie.