Bad Christmases - A New Plan
When you have four generations showing up at one house for a Christmas gathering, you can get some very different views.
When I was born, my name was Jeremy Isiah Newman, I now go by the name Stacy Denise Newman. Nearly three years ago I got my gender dysphoria diagnosis. I’ve heard plenty of horror stories about others, that have gone through transition. Being eleven when I started, will make me thirteen for my third Christmas. I haven’t had too many problems with my transition, other than a few family members, so it’s been a pretty smooth transition thus far.
I’m sure that my father was thoroughly relieved that I also came out as lesbian. He wasn’t the happiest when I came out as trans, but I think he thought of me dating a boy screamed gay. Conversely, I think he sees me being lesbian as hetero, no clue how he comes to that conclusion. Because I started my gender change before puberty, I am most definitely feminine looking. When Annie and I are together, he surely has to see that we fall under a gay banner.
Dad has really been a very supportive party, my whole immediate family has actually. Grands, no so much. My father’s grandmother, May; and mother’s parents, Michael and Sandra have been great. Dad’s parents and grandfather, not nearly as nice about my transition as my mother’s grandparents. My mother’s grandparents aren’t anything to write home about to start with. I wish they were all like Grandma May and Grandma and Grandpa Holmes (Mom’s maiden name).
Kelly, my oldest sister, has been a real rock for me. Michael is my next oldest sibling, he’s been really cool too. He’s only a year older, so this year I still have him in school. Though next year he’ll be a high schooler. My younger sister, Diane looks to me the same as I do to Kell, she’s two years back from me. Billy is the baby, just barely seven now. Billy’s only problem was mainly a logistics thing. “Why are we calling Jemmy, Stacy?” He had problems pronouncing Jeremy. It did take him a bit to understand that he had three sisters now instead of two brothers and two sisters.
Mom and Dad were both only children, so our house is the common denominator for the grands. Therefore, we were generally the hosts for Christmas each year. My siblings got nearly everything they wanted each Christmas and for their birthdays. For the last two years, Christmas and birthdays have been slim pickings for me. Grandma May, Grandma and Grandpa Holmes, and my immediate family have got me things that are fitting for a young lady, but my other grandparents and great grandparents have tried to push the boy stuff at me.
Great Grandma May and Grandpa Will buy separately for us because she supports me, but he doesn’t. That’s a good thing as well as bad. Great Grands Holmes, well, I don’t expect to get any use of anything they give. Mom had even asked them to get gift cards or gender neutral gifts for me since the aren’t likely to get me anything feminine.
My parents enjoy sleeping in on holidays, so the rule is if we wake early, we stay in our rooms until we hear the second doorbell. The greats and grands always show up together. Second doorbell indicates both sides of the family have shown up. We head downstairs in our pajamas to have a small breakfast before exchange gifts. I find it funny that most of my elders bristle at my lavender pjs with pink stocking hats. Kell, Di, and I ramped up the girly notch a bit talking about makeup, just because of the elders.
After breakfast and putting the elders through enough torture (according to Mom), we went into the family room to do presents. Great grandpa Will tried to send me to get changed out of my pajamas, Mom asked him why only I needed to change. “You know good and well why!” was his response. Dad made it clear that he’d treat us all the same, if I had to change, so did my siblings, and we weren’t changing to our fancy clothes before gifts were opened.
“So be it,” my great grandfather replied. “They can open from me first so they can all get changed.” Great grandpa Will ALWAYS gave us clothes. So, we all opened his presents to us. No surprise, I got smaller versions of the button down light blue shirt and khaki carpenters that Michael got, Billy got the same thing, smaller yet.
Mom and Dad weren’t happy at all, Grandpa Will had tried this same thing previously. We were all about to protest when Michael and Kell each grabbed my hands, with Di carrying both our outfits. Mom and Dad gave us quizzical looks, but Michael’s nod to them stopped them. Kelly pulled me to my room, telling me to get my robe on, then go find Michael.
With my robe tied around me, I went in search of my brother. I stopped dead in my tracks when I found him in Di’s room, the ironing board was set up and he was putting some Cinderella iron-on patches on the back pockets. Princess Jasmine were already ironed onto the front just below the pockets, before I made it into the room. Kell was taking the buttons off of the shirt and sewing on new pink buttons. Once Michael finished the pants, he handed them to me, then let Kell finish the button she was working on. He took the shirt, putting Belle on the pocket there too, then handed it back to Kell to finish the buttons, before going to get changed.
Before I put the new clothes on, I made sure I had a bright pink training bra and cami on. Kell, Di and I could hear the elders complaining about it taking so long on our way back to the family room. We also heard Mom say, “You expected the girls to change fast?” Part of the delay was Di putting charms of the other Disney Princesses on each new button after I got the shirt on. The Princesses belt was a nice finishing touch.
Grandpa Will of course retorted, “That only counts for two of the three not back yet.”
“No,” Mom replied, “that’s all three daughters. You may not accept it but we do.”
Grandma May saw what had been done to my clothes before I could put them on, held her arms open for a hug, then wrapped me in her loving embrace, but Grandpa Will almost blew a gasket. “Where the Hell are the clothes I got you,” exploded out of my great grandfather.
“She’s got them on, despite your attempt to set her back, you stubborn old fool!” Grandma May retorted. “Let me cut the tags off sweetie,” she addressed to me. She handed him the removed tags as proof.
“This is not acceptable,” Grandpa Will complained.
“I’m a teenager, we don’t do plain, we jazz up our clothes,” I replied to his compliant. “Be happy that my brother and sisters thought of this, I wasn’t going to wear them until I saw what they were doing. I was going to come back down in a pink sleep set that is ten times girlier than my pajamas.”
There was some huffing and puffing after that, but it settled fairly quickly. Grandma May’s gifts were next, but it almost seemed that Mom and Dad got them for us, since they were right on the money. Maybe she went shopping with Mom, so she knew what to get. The jewelry box I got was beautiful. When I opened it, some of the stuff was obviously new and some that she must have had for ages. The earrings on the cards made me reach instinctively for my unpierced ears.
Michael handed out Grandma and Grandpa Holmes’ gifts after that. I think he just wanted to make sure we got our good gifts first. Mom’s parents went all out. Other than Billy we all got some great electronics. Even Billy got some great age appropriate swag, nothing that’d go online, but fun for him none the less.
After Mom’s parents were Dad’s parents. Nobody opened anything before me. I wasn’t sure, but found out later that my siblings and parents had arranged it that way. As soon as I had one side opened of the first present, seeing the side of a snaptite model car I stopped going any further. Michael held out his hand for me to pass it over. I was starting to tear up, no point in even opening the rest.
“Are all of her presents like this?” Michael asked my grandparents. Once they confirmed, he asked the same of my great grands on Mom’s side. They too, had only got me gifts appropriate for a thirteen year old boy. “I guess we’ll do it your way Kell,” Michael addressed my sister, handing her my present. For a second, I thought we were opening each other’s gifts. Kell opened her purse, pulled out a roll of tape and some labels.
Michael grabbed my hand to help me stand, I moved to where Kell sat, and she took my place. I noticed the labels in front of her presents, they said sixteen year old girl. Michael passed out the rest of the presents, all of Kelly’s were in front of me. All of mine were in front of Kell; Michael, Di and Billy each had their own. Not one present had been opened, sans the model car. Even my parents had labels in front of them with age & gender on them.
My elders were looking at all of us like we’d gone mad, it wasn’t until the original tags were removed and replaced that they started getting vocal. I was still sitting there dumbfounded, watching my family switching the tags on each present for the labels. It took Mom to break me out of it, “Go on Stacy, they won’t change themselves.”
“Just what the hell are you doing?” came from Grandma Pearl.
“Grandma, there were several families that we weren’t able to help out this Christmas with the toy drive, these will be perfect for them!” Mom’s declaration definitely bristled some feathers.
“They most certainly will not!” my great grandmother replied.
“Yes, the really will. As you have decided to slight Stacy yet again, we decided that if one of us is going to be disparaged, all of us would gladly donate everything given by the individual. We even suggested gender neutral gifts or gift cards that could be used anywhere. We are just saving some time by using the original wrapping paper, thinking green.” Every head turned to look at Grandma May as she started cackling at Mom’s response to her counterpart.
“No, if you aren’t going to open them, then we will take them back!” Grandpa Bart tried to say.
“Not happening Grandpa!” Mom was adamant.
“There are some personal items in there with names and dates, as well as some electronics that are on our cell accounts. They will be returned.” He tried again.
“I hope then that you only got one or two, the early termination fees might get a bit expensive if you got for all four over age ten.” Dad quipped. “But you gave them, and will not reneg, You were the ones that decided to give inappropriate gifts to a thirteen year old girl.”
The arguing went on for nearly forty-five minutes until Dad threatened charges of theft if they tried to take them back. At that point Dad’s parents and Mom’s grandparents decided it was time to leave, well before Christmas dinner. Maybe they’ve got some leftovers they could have, so they don’t need to cook.
Mom, Grandma May, Kell, and I (now that I was a teenager) all went to the kitchen to work on dinner. Dad stayed in the family room with Grandpa and Grandma Holmes, as well as great grandpa Newman; while my brothers and Di put everything in our bedrooms.
“I am not happy with what those children did to Jeremy’s clothes.” Grandpa Will told Dad.
“They didn’t do anything to Jeremy’s clothes,” Dad replied. “There isn’t a Jeremy here. You need to get that through your head. While the kids are out of the room, I’m going to tell you something that Kell, Michael, Di and Billy will never learn.”
“Oh, and what’s that?”
“THAT, is we found Stacy just after her eleventh birthday in front of Nat’s full length mirror. She was dressed in one of her mother’s smallest outfits.”
“No different than a lot of young boys do Ryan, doesn’t mean they need to wear the clothes and change their name.” Grandpa retorted.
“No, you are right there, but most parents don’t find a child NOT breathing, next to an empty bottle of sleeping pills.” Dad had thoroughly shut my great grandfather down. “I will gladly raise my diagnosed transgendered daughter than plan a funeral for one of my children.”
“Are you telling me that Jeremy tried to kill himself?“
“You still don’t get it, I’m telling you that Stacy would have succeeded killing herself, if Nat hadn’t had to come home from work to grab a file she needed to show one of her clients,” Dad told his grandfather. “We had hoped all of you would come around on you own without needing to be told HOW we found out that our child was suffering.”
The conversation went on much longer than the four adults in the room had realized. It wasn’t until Michael and Di bolted to the kitchen, that anyone sussed they’d been overheard. Both were hugging Stacy and crying, much to the shock of those already in the kitchen.
Nat gave her husband a questioning look, so he motioned to the laundry room with his head. Will could see that things were about to get very chaotic so he took command, “Sandy, can you help May and Kell? Michael and Di please go play in you rooms, check that Billy is as well, Stacy I’d like you to join me in the family room. When Ryan and Nat come out of the laundry send them to the other room.”
The elder Michael, opted to stay in the kitchen helping as muscle for the cooks. Stacy let her great grandfather lead her to the family room but stood awkwardly while he sat on the couch. She hadn’t yet fully grasped that he’d used her new name for the first time. She moved slowly over to him when he patted the seat next to where he sat.
Over the next fifteen minutes Will learned how much the prospect of turning into a man terrorized Stacy. He learned that her feelings of being a girl started from the age of five when kids in kindergarten were generally separated by gender for many things. Will found out a lot about his great granddaughter before they were joined by her parents.
“I’ll talk to your parents.” Will told Ryan.
“Grandpa, we don’t want them to know how we found out. I didn’t want to tell you either, but I couldn’t stand it any longer. Maybe with you and Grandma both telling them to get with the program, it’ll sink in.” Ryan’s plea towards his grandfather was met by a solitary nod.
“Michael and Sandy won’t have much success, you know.” Will was sure that Bart and Pearl would have to be told the secret to get onboard. He then looked directly at Stacy, “Would you like to go shopping with your great grandparents tomorrow to get a more appropriate outfit?” Stacy launched herself at Will, wrapping him in a tight hug, crying as she did so, but nodding vigorously.
Chatty Kathy
Jonny Steele was “huge,” he was a legend in our neighborhood. He was thirteen like the rest of my friends, but as I said, he was huge; five foot seven, one hundred and fifty-five pounds. Jonny was a lefty at the plate, though I think he wrote righty in school. Anyways, he was at bat, and I was third base coach.
Jonny’s brother Mike was the pitcher on the other team. Jonny and Mike got along well, most would say like oil and water. I thought they got along more like a lit match and a keg of powder. That was part of the reason Mike was not on our team, the league separated the two, having seen how well they play together (or rather didn’t get along). Mike knew how Jonny liked to hit, and I’m pretty certain that’s the reason Mike was pitching low and outside.
Jonny was able to gets a hit on just about anything Mike ever threw at him. Today was no different, Mikey’s next pitch was higher than he was trying for, but Jonny cracked a grin, then a homerun. Stevie's leadoff was probably caught out of the corner of Mikes eye, just as he was mid-pitch, causing the pitch to end in a perfect spot for Jonny.
Mike was furious, he was throwing nothing but fast balls for the next three batters. Three strikeouts in a row. When we left the infield, I told coach that Mike wasn’t throwing the called pitches. Coach didn’t really like me on the team, I could barely catch, and had trouble hitting. He did however like that I could figure out the called pitches in the first couple innings of each game. That was my contribution to the team.
My job was to look at the guys we had on base, as if telling them to steal or stay, but really I was signaling the batter as to what pitch was called. Mike not throwing the called pitch is how they got the strikeouts. Donny and Thomas got on second and third in the fourth, before the end of the inning was called from a high fly ball. At the bottom of the fifth, Stevie got a two base hit, then stole third when Larry, the catcher on Mike’s team erred on a low pitch. Mike was pissed again, and was throwing low and outside to Jonny like he usually did. Stevie was close enough to me that I could tell him to tell coach, without the third baseman hearing.
Jonny got ahold of one that looked like it would be another homerun, so I sent Stevie on to home. He crossed the plate just as the wind pushed Jonny ball foul. The count was now full, but Stevie had scored, then went to fill in coach on what Mike was pitching.
Bases were empty, Jonny was fouling every pitch Mike threw at him then coach called a timeout. After a brief talk in the dugout, coach sent me back to third baseline, and Jonny in to hit right handed. With nobody on base I wasn’t to signal pitches, keeping our rouse of me signaling base runners. I had just looked to my left to look at the scoreboard that read six to two in our favor, when I heard Jonny hit the ball. I felt the ball hit me in the back of the head, then everything went black.
When I woke up, Mom was holding me on her lap, cradling me, but it was the smell of something the EMT guys were holding under my nose that actually woke me. I later learned they were called smelling salts. Man, the stink! Once I was awake, they loaded me on a gurney, then got me into the ambulance. I had been crying the whole time from the pain. Mom rode with me and Dad followed in the car.
The hospital put me through a battery of tests that day, even after giving me some painkillers, I was still crying. Dad’s first words to me were “Dry it up Kathy, it’s over now.” Damn, he’s got to be the biggest asshole on the planet.
“Knock it off Dale,” I heard my mother say.
“Linda, if he doesn’t toughen up, he’ll suffer abuse his whole life,” my father retorted.
“So, it’s ok for YOU to abuse him?” her response shut Dad up for a change. “YOU appear to be his biggest bully!” she finished.
Dad was the only reason I was on the baseball team. Dad made sure I was in some kind of sport. Football had me hospitalized twice before Mom put a stop to that, and I was too short for basketball.
A few years ago, we had gone to a family get together. Dad was the youngest of five sons, naturally I was nearly the youngest of my cousins. I probably would be the youngest if Uncle Pete hadn’t remarried after Aunt Carol died.
Aunt Laura, Uncle Pete’s second wife got pregnant two years after I was born. Daisy was therefore the youngest. At the get together, she was bored and underfoot. It usually fell to me to keep her entertained, so we were in her room playing with Chatty Kathy and Mrs. Beasley.
I had been ten that day, Daisy was seven going on eight. Dad came up to get us when dinner was ready and threw a fit. From that day on, he tried to make sure the only things I did were boy oriented. Nobody understood why he was so bent out of shape, they all knew that I played with Daisy to keep her out of the kitchen. It wasn’t like I played with dolls any other time, just when I had to keep Daisy busy.
That had been Memorial Day, when the fourth of July came that year, I asked Mom if I should bring anything to help keep Daisy busy. Dad overheard and went off the rails again. “If you’re going to be playing with her, you may as well wear a dress too.”
“Stop it Dale, you know no one else is anywhere nears Daisy’s age.” Mom was always my defender when Dad got in a pissy mood.
“Linda, if Ryan is going to play girl, he’s going to look like a girl, I’m not raising a sissy.”
“Daisy can’t be expected to do the same things as the older boys Dale!” Mom was getting angry, something Dad was fairly quick to cause when he went off on one of his Macho rants. “Ryan does nicely keeping her busy, so we can get dinner made in time.”
“Then he can wear a dress, and we’ll call him Kathy, just like that doll he was playing with.”
Mom took me by the hand and lead me to my room. After closing my door, she pulled out her cell phone and called Aunt Sara. “Sara? Linda, do you still have that costume Danny wore for Halloween three years ago? Yes, can you bring that over in an hour? Dale is being an ass, I’ll explain when you get here. I just need to send him on an errand if about forty-five minutes. Ok, see you then.”
I remember that costume and questioned Mom about it. It was a Disney Princess, Belle I think. Lots of the kids had a great laugh at the costume, because Danny was quite campy about it. Mom wanted to wait until Aunt Sara showed up to fill me in.
Danny was two years older than I was, making him the fourth youngest, with Billy between us. He was also much larger than I was, I think Aunt Sara had all his old costumes saved from each year, probably what gave Mom the idea to call Aunt Sara. Anyways, once Dad was gone and Aunt Sara showed up, Mom got down to the plan. My hair wasn’t long, so the only thing they could do was to cut it into a pixie cut. After that was done, Aunt Sara left. Her part of the plan was to spread the word to the other parents, aunts and uncles. All of us Boys would be Princesses today and play with Daisy.
Dad got home about fifteen minutes before we had to leave. I was in my room listening to music and sitting in my pjs. He stuck his head in my room, “I’m going to load the car, get dressed and ready to go.
Ten minutes later I heard him yell, “Linda, get Ryan out here so we can get to Pete’s” Mom came in the room and we quickly fixed my pixie cut that I messed up so Dad wouldn’t see it right away. The Belle dress that fit Danny perfectly when he was nine, fit me perfectly as well, even though I was ten at the time. The small wedge shoes felt a bit strange, but were negotiable.
“I guess you are playing with Daisy,” he stated with disgust as Mom and I got in the car. He kept his look of disgust all the way to Uncle Pete’s and Aunt Laura’s. As we pulled up outside, he put the car in park and muttered something about it being weird none of my cousins were playing catch or throwing shoes.
“Grab some of the food or drinks Kathy,” he said in a snooty voice.
“Don’t you dare Kathy, that’s a boys job. Send out your cousins.” Mom intoned.
I ran to the front door as fast as I could in the wedges. “Aunt Laura, Dad said to send out the cousins to help.” I yelled loud enough to make sure Dad heard me. Aunt Laura and Aunt Sara were in hysterics already knowing the plan.
Dad was super pissed when he saw all my Princess cousins walked out the door. “I guess you’ll have to get it all by yourself Dale, the Princesses shouldn’t be getting dirty doing a boys job!” Mom enthused.
His mood didn’t get better when all of his brothers informed him he shouldn’t have brought so much if he didn’t have a son to help him carry it all. I guess Aunt Steph was able to pick up costumes at short notice from the theater she helped with part time, with the promise that all the costumes were returned in the same condition. I don’t think Daisy ever had that much fun.
The only downside to that day had been Dad’s insistence of dressing as a girl if I was going to play with Daisy, which I always did, the other cousins only helped that one day, but never gave me grief knowing it was Dad’s requirement. If you consider it, deportment lessons would be the other downside, but that wasn’t really that bad. Mom would do that when Dad wasn’t around.
Mom decided when it was time for a haircut, she’d put me in my latest dress, take me to the salon for a new pixie cut, then for a dress or skirt and top big enough I could grow into it. She did always make sure one of my uncles would keep Dad busy while we were at it. Daisy loved the hand me downs, because they were always from cousin Kathy.
So, back to age thirteen in the hospital, battery of tests, pain medication not having any effect. They decided to keep me overnight for observation. Mom sent Dad home, she wasn’t in any mood to deal with his attitudes about boys and girls behaviors. She saw my smiles after he’d left the room for the night, and returned one of her own.
“Mom?” she gave me a questioning look, so I continued, “If Dad is going to keep up the Kathy name, I may as well just wear dresses all the time, or at least girls clothes. Winter might suck in a dress.” I think she chuckled at that last part.
“That’s up to you, Baby” I wonder if she knows how embarrassing ‘Baby’ is? “If you do that, we won’t be calling you Kathy though.”
“Why not Momma?” I asked her.
“Because when I was pregnant with you the doctors said you would be a girl, but you weren’t . We had picked out the name Lydia. It’s close to my name without being the same,” she informed me.
“Do you think I should? It doesn’t seem like he’s going to stop, maybe it’ll be better to have my own real name.” She smiled again at me, just as Uncle Stan walked into the room.
“That’s not a bad idea,” he said catching us both by surprise. “You might want to talk to the ladies about that tomorrow, and have them talk to my brothers except for Dale. Get a plan and a full wardrobe for Lydia if you decide to do it.”
“It’s going to cause some major problems at our house if we do that Stan,” Mom replied.
“I’m sure it will Linda, but all of us are sick of baby brothers sexist attitude, so any of us will put you two up, until he gets his head out of his ass. Our boys would look after Lydia at school too if it goes that far.”
Mom and Uncle Stan looked at me, “What do you think, Ryan or Lydia?” Mom asked.
“Lydia!” I smiled.
“I’ll tell Jenn when I get home,” Uncle Stan said. “She left about an hour ago, and won’t have to be here tomorrow. She can get the ball rolling, when you get out of here tomorrow, bring Lydia’s outfit over for those two to go shopping. Tell Dale ‘Ryan’ is going to stay with us for a couple days. That’ll give you and the other ladies a chance to get Lydia together. We’ll fill all the boys in while you and Dale are working.”
“Do you think we’ll need a gender consult? I mean it’s just to break Dale of his stupid comments ,” Mom questioned.
“I’ll ask Jenn when I get home, she’s the psychiatrist. She will likely talk to one of the others to see if it’ll be necessary for an intervention type of dress up,” Uncle Stan commented. “Now, you get some rest, young lady.” Uncle Stan’s smile was very warm considering the comment was to me as a young boy in appearance.
When I woke up in the morning, Mom wasn’t in the room. I hit the nurse call button to find out if it was OK for me to go to the bathroom. Nancy, Aunt Jenn’s best friend came into the room. “Such a good patient,” she said. “I’m glad you know we’d rather help, than have you try on your own the first time.”
“I’ve been here enough times Aunt Nancy! I know what you want ‘cause of my aunt and uncle,” I informed her.
“You know you can just call me Nancy sweetie,” she said.
“You’re my aunt’s best friend, and I like it better than Nurse Nancy!”
“Ok, ok,” she relented. “Your Uncle told me about last night's conversation between you, him, and your mother. Do you want me to call you Lydia?” she asked.
“May as well,” I responded. “Hope Dad figures it out soon.”
Nancy helped me back into my bed, as she was leaving she said, “See you later, Lydia,” with a smile as she closed the door.
I heard her talking to someone outside my door for a minute or so before my door opened again, Mom walked in followed by of all people, Jonny and Mike. “Who’s Lydia?” came Jonny’s first question. Much to my embarrassment Mom filled Jonny and Mike in on Dad’s assholeish behavior. She included the first time, each time since, as well as how Dad was the night before. She also told them of the plan to get Dad to lay off.
“He needs punched in the mouth!” Jonny bluntly stated. Mike, mom, and I all laughed at that. “Don’t worry Lydia, we’ll help out at school too if it comes to that.”
To say Mom and I were stunned at that would be an understatement. “Thanks boys,” Mom said. "I hope it doesn’t, but Dale still hasn’t figured anything out after all of our family gatherings. You’d think by now he should be able to get four from two plus two. Lydia may need more help than just protection, would your girlfriends or sister be up for some girl lessons?
Mike jumped in, “Oh yeah, Ang Will love it.”
“Ok, guys, run along. Remember, we are keeping this from Dale, or at least the reason for this. See you at the game later this week Jonny, and good luck on your next game Mike,” Mom said.
Dad was already at work when I got out of the hospital that day, so Aunt Jenn picked up Mom and me. Mom got out at our house, ran in for a few clothes for me, my girl outfit included, then went back in to get ready for work. I went home with Aunt Jenn.
The guys were playing catch when we pulled up. Dave had to carry my stuff up to the spare room, since Aunt Jenn pulled me into the home office she shared with Uncle Stan. She made a call to one of her colleagues named Kathy, I gave her a funny look. She just chuckled at me, letting me know Kathy was a gender specialist. I had to roll my eyes at her, but she still caught my smile.
Kathy told her she’d need blood panels done. Aunt Jenn informed her it was one of the tests I had done the previous night, and Uncle Stan would get her the results. My aunt then left us alone so I could talk to Kathy privately. We had a long chat, I think it was about an hour and a half. Since it was my idea to dress as Lydia, Kathy wanted to have a good idea of what I was going through. She told me if it had been Mom’s idea, she wouldn’t likely be as involved.
When I finished talking to Kathy my aunt had me shower, she plugged her nose next to me as a joke, then told me to get dressed in Ryan clothes. I would start dressing as Lydia after my dad went home that night.
Mom and Dad stopped over for dinner with my aunt and uncle’s family. Dad likes Papa John’s but we had Domino’s since it’s my favorite, and I was the guest of honor. They stayed about two hours, as they were leaving I gave Mom a hug and a kiss. She ruffled my hair on her way out the door.
I had heard Dad and his brother talking earlier, but it apparently did no good. When he saw a tear run down my cheek before the door closed, he had to go and make another of his comments. I wasn’t the only one that caught it. Aunt Jenn was right there wrapping me in a tight hug.
I slept pretty late the following morning. It was almost ten by the time my aunt wake me with a kiss to the forehead. “In the shower sweetie,” she told me. The shampoo and conditioner I use are in the top of the caddy. There is also a new razor, legs and underarms. I’ll get your clothes out of the closet while you are cleaning up.”
“Thanks Aunt Jenn.” I was still groggy, but apparently I was chipper enough.
When I made it back to the guest room, my family gathering outfit was on the bed with my wedges sitting with the toes stuck under the egde. It didn’t take long to get dressed, mainly the ‘tucking’ takes the longest.
“Morning Lydia!” came the excited shriek that stopped me dead in my tracks. I had just walked into the kitchen to get breakfast. I expected to see my aunt and maybe a cousin, but not Jonny’s sister Beth. “Put your eyes back in girlfriend, we have a busy day.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked Beth.
“Mike and Jonny came home from visiting you, they told the Family. We all agree that Dale doesn’t need to know why I get a new girlfriend to hang with at the Mall. Jonny said your mom thought you might need some girl lessons. Angie and I are going to help as much as possible.” Holy cow! I don’t think she took a breath.
I don’t know what made me do it, but I ran the last few steps and threw my arms around her for a heavy duty hug. Tears were starting again, I think she could feel me sobbing when I heard her say, “Probably best we didn’t do you makeup yet.”
Breaking away I couldn’t help but giggle. I had long since adopted some girly tendencies when in Kathy mode. “Maybe not full girl lessons, you seem to have some from your time as Kathy. Your aunt gave me a better idea of what it was like for you. Mike and Jonny only gave me highlights.” She was smiling as she explained she’d been there most of the morning already.
Once I’d been fed, we got into my aunts SUV then started towards the Mall. Beth explained on the way to the mall that they stopped at the hospital to see if I was still there, Uncle Stan told them where to find me. She also said that Ang couldn’t make it today, so she’d be with Aunt Sara to take me tomorrow.
“What’s that about Aunt Jenn?” I asked.
“You mother, Uncle Stan and I talked to the rest of the family. We are all taking turns getting you ready to meet you father as Lydia,” she replied. “I’m going to drop you off at Ray and Steph’s when we are done. Kathy told me the best place to find appliances for you, she did warn they may be a tad uncomfortable until you get used to them.”
“You mean like toasters and microwaves?” I deadpanned. “Bit of a fashion statement.”
“Funny, no, your boobies and whowho.” She informed me.
“Whowho?” I was confused
Giggling next to me, “You’re gonna have a Va Jay Jay.” Beth was covering her mouth.
So, the appliance store wasn’t Maytag. Generally, the customers were cancer survivors, But those same appliances brought in a few transgendered clients. Diana was great! She found some breast forms that were about halfway through the A cup. Once my ‘breasts’ were in place, Beth had to wait in the other room while Diana showed me and Aunt Jenn how to affix my vagina. Kathy wasn’t wrong, it’d take some getting used to.
The appliance store was right across from the mall, so I was informed the next step was Vickie’s. More surprises! Mom was standing there waiting on me, correction, us.
“You don’t think I’m going to miss getting my little girls first bra do you,” she questioned when I asked her why she wasn’t working. “Technically, I’m on lunch, but I was given a long lunch because of the accident. Kim also knows what we are planning, she thinks it’s a smart plan.” Mom’s boss Kim is one of my favorite adults, she’s really funny and quite kind.
“Ohhh, Lydia!” Beth was holding a racy twenty-seven ‘A’ black bra panty set.
“Absolutely not!” Mom said. “Black yes, racy no. Some outfits will need the black sets. Get something simple.” Before Mom left, we found a dozens sets in my size, some sleep wear, and casual lounging clothes. The sweats with ‘Pink’ across my backside are going to give Dad fits. Oh well, his problem.
Mom left to go back to work. Next stop, where else is a girl going at the mall? You know it! Claire’s! Double ear piercings, denim handbag my aunt got me from across the hall, rings and necklaces, but hair accessories would have to wait, really not enough hair yet to do anything with.
“Ok girls, we got time for pizza before we have to be at the Salon!” Aunt Jenn led us to the food court. Svabaro’s isn’t great, but it’ll do for now, sure wish it were Domino’s. I was going to have two pieces, but my aunt talked me out of the second one. The tea was delicious though. I have always loved brewed iced tea.
My last pixie cut was still growing in, so all I really got was a cleanup. Split ends and all that, but I did get a few lowlights. The mani-pedi left me with cotton candy pink toenails, and French tip fingernails. When we left the salon, my aunt lead us to Dillard’s. The makeover at the MAC counter was something else. ‘Lacie’ or that’s what her nametag said made sure to explain everything she was doing.
Aunt Jenn tutted at the ‘date night’ makeup. Lacie explained the reason for that was so I could see it. She does two looks, one to see, then one appropriate for the time of day. I guess it means she only has to do it twice then. Summer day look had me looking like an average ‘cute’ teen girl.
At my aunts urging, Beth and I hit Teen Gap, and Abercrombie for a load of separates. We took longer than we thought, soon we were ushered out to the car with a load of bags. We were on the way to Uncle Ray and Aunt Steph’s. Ron, being sixteen was just pulling out of the driveway when we pulled in. Billy was told to help carry the bags to the spare room.
“Mom will be home in an hour,” he told us once we got everything in and Aunt Jenn had left to get back home. Billy didn’t really care for the fashion show I did while waiting on my aunt to get home from work. It was closer to an hour and a half before she actually made it home.
Normally, she teaches third grade, but now she was doing Summer school. I was just getting a new outfit on when she walked into the guest room with two rolling suitcases. “Aunt Steph!” I exclaimed. “I hope that’s not Ryan clothes.”
“No Dear, they are new and empty,” she told me. “However, you will need them when you go to Aunt Sara’s tomorrow.” I guess I hadn’t thought that far ahead, so I giggled while nodding. Beth was giggling too. “Now, how does Famous Footwear sound?” I think that excited Beth more than me.
Bogo! I got so many pairs of shoes there. Trainers, ballet flats, Keds, one and a half inch pumps, sandals, flip flops, muled beach shoes that I could go into the water wearing. Socks, all varieties, no shows, crew cut, stocking to go with nicer outfits, animals prints, stripped, and toesies.
From there we went to Wally World. Nail polish, cheaper makeup that I could experiment with before using my stuff from MAC. Head bands, a watch, bangles, bracelets, some stuff from crafts to make friendship bracelets and accessories. We did see a cute skater dress that my aunt thought I would look adorable in, so she got that too. Then back to her house, dropping off Beth on the way.
Angie was waiting on us when we got back. Her and Billy looked a bit too cozy talking in the driveway. I brought her to the guest room with my haul that Billy helped carry into the room. When I talked to her about being cozy with Billy, she said he was trying to get her number. I knew Jonny wouldn’t like that, I’d have to talk to him later.
Ang was going to be the first to sleepover with me. That was kinda strange, I really hope she was going to change in the bathroom, I sure don’t need Jonny thinking I saw his girlfriend naked. I learned to make my first friendship bracelet that night. Beth would end up showing me how to do it with beads a couple weeks later.
Ang didn’t want to mess up my french tips, so I ended up with six colors on my toes. So much for cotton candy! I learned how to do a french braid from my aunt, although I think a regular braid looked better after Ang redid it. Ang and I were able to get Billy to let us paint his big toes a dark blue, that almost looked black. Ron wasn’t as cooperative, so no fun there.
Before we crashed for the night, Aunt Steph showed me the crafts she had her class do that day. They were tags for my luggage, on one side it said ‘Ryan,’ ‘Lydia’ was on the other side.
Aunt Sara was there at eight thirty to pick us up in the morning. Macy’s was on the agenda for the day! Shorts, tops, nicer dresses for church type occasions, or holidays. I was feeling a bit peekish going through some of the bathing suits. I settled for a maillot and two bikinis. One of the bikinis was yellow, BRIGHT yellow, one was a teal color, the maillot was turquoise.
Mom was at Aunt Sara’s when we got there. We’d stopped at Aunt Steph’s to pick up the clothes and other new belongings we didn’t want filling my aunts car during today’s shopping trip. She had Jr. Cheeseburger deluxes for Ang and me. The boys got Baconators, while her and Aunt Sara had some salads.
Uncle Marc had just got to the house in time to help load all my new stuff into Mom’s SUV. Then it was off to Uncle Pete’s for the night. I was going to keep Daisy company, while everyone else met at Uncle Stan’s and Aunt Jenn’s. Daisy was ecstatic, having me babysit while the others got the scoop from Kathy on what to expect from me. I knew they were going to be having a meeting, what it was about, and things to look for, because it was one of the things I had talked to Kathy about.
We’d got the O.K. to lay out by the pool, but because of my injury, and Daisy’s age, we had to stay away from the water for a few days, unless someone was with us. Suzie showed up a bit later. She was from Aunt Laura’s first marriage. We got about ten minutes in the water to cool down while she was there. Aunt Laura asked her if she had kept anything that I might like to have if I was going to be Lydia very long.
“Okay girls,” Suzie started, “I need to get to Uncle Stan’s with everyone else. However, I have something for the two of you before I go.” She held up two necklaces, “Daisy, I was going to give both of these to you when you turned thirteen, but I didn’t think there would be anymore girls in the family when I made those plans. You get to choose which one you want lil’ sis.”
Daisy looked at the two very carefully. Both were very pretty, so much so that Daisy had trouble choosing one. “They are too pretty to choose Suzie, maybe we could just share them.” Daisy’s idea brought a satisfied smile to Suzie face.
“I like that idea, but this one on the longer chain is from our Grandmother, so I would like it to stay with you most of the time.” Suzie’s idea seemed to be best, Daisy didn’t mind it being that way.
“We got me quite a few this week, so I’ll just borrow one of them if one of mine doesn’t go with what I’m wearing.” Suzie was shaking her head, I guess she didn’t like that idea for some reason.
“The shorter necklace is from Grandma, your grandma, she gave it to my mom when Mom was getting dressed for the wedding. It was the something borrowed. So Lydia, you keep that one, you can share though. Mom asked me if I had anything to hand down, these are the only two things I have that would fit.”
“Maybe the three of us can go shopping next week, just us three girls,” I posed the question to them. Daisy I think really liked that idea, as she was nodding vigorously then hugged me.
“Good idea,” Suzie confirmed.
“Yeah, I’d like that a lot!” Daisy agreed. She then got a contemplated expression, “I hope you’re still a girl next weekend.” I was near tears as I pulled her into the tightest hug I can ever remember giving her. Suzie must have been in the same emotional state, as I felt her wrap her arms around Daisy and me.
“Okay girls,” Suzie started, “I need to get to Uncle Stan’s. I’ll make sure before next weekend. Pizza should be here in a few minutes, it’s already been paid for just have the delivery driver leave it outside, then bring it in after they leave.”
“Thanks Suzie, love you!” we chimed together. As Suzie opened the door the driver was reaching for the bell, she handed us the pizza, then headed for our aunt and uncle’s .
We sat at the kitchen table to eat pizza and drink our Pepsi. When it was just the two of us they prefer we not eat at the dining room table. Something about less mess, but both of us were good about cleaning up after ourselves. “What do you want to do?” I asked as we finished cleaning up.
“Duh, fashion show!” Daisy had this tone that said it was obvious. She was apparently the director of the show, putting together outfits that looked great. Not very many of the parts from each outfit were from the same store, she just had a perfect eye for fashion.
When Uncle Pete and Aunt Laura showed up with Mom, I was in an outfit that would only look good on the runway, it was so over the top. Our parents, Jeff and Luke all looked at us like we’d gone crazy, since we were gigging like five year olds on the playground. Mom suggested I go change into a regular outfit, since Dad was picking us up.
While I was changing Daisy was showing Mom each of the photos she took of me. She managed to get one of each outfit with both our phones. Sticking her head in the door, then walking in she asked for my phone. She scrolled through several pictures, stopping on the outfit she wanted me to wear. “How do you think Dad is going to take this Momma?”
“I think he’s going to have problems with it to be honest, but he was letting his feelings of what boys and girls should be doing get in the way of child’s play,” she opined. “If he hadn’t pushed you into sports, you never would have gotten injured, so he loses any choice in the matter from here on out.”
“Can we set up the guest room for me as Lydia?” I questioned her. “My room has a full sized bed, so it could be the guest room, and I can make the guest room a girl’s room.”
“Sounds like a great idea Sweetie.” Mom then gave me one of the greatest hugs in the world, it was a mother daughter hug. It was very different from hugs as Ryan, much more warmth in that one hug. “Okay, all dressed go play with Daisy for a bit if you want, or we can go join the others watching the tube.”
“I think I’m ready to relax,” I replied. “It’s been a busy couple days, T.V. I think. When I got to the living room, the movie Cinderella was on the screen. This was the live action movie, so I sat next to Daisy, we held hands while watching it. I don’t think either of us realized that we were doing it.
“I think it may have been the best choice to go this route,” Aunt Laura said to Mom. “They look completely natural like that.”
“May be right, Laura,” came Mom’s response.
We made it to the scene where the Prince was visiting the wicked stepmother’s house, and Cinderella could be heard singing while the stepmother was trying to hide her away. The door opened and in walked Dad, seeing us and rolling his eyes.
“Sit down and watch the end of the movie Dale.” Mom was not going to give Dad a chance to make a scene. Dad was giving me disapproving looks for the last few minutes of the movie, but I just ignored him to the best of my ability. It was reassuring to feel Daisy squeeze my hand, so I gave her a thank you smile.
Once the movie was over, with the credits rolling Dad said, “Kathy, go put your Ryan clothes on so we can get home.” I remained seated, it was something Mom had suggested I do before we left the other room. Raising his voice, Ryan, go get changed!” Still I was not moving. I thought Dad was going to blow a gasket.
He started to move towards me. Mom, Uncle Pete, Jeff and Luke moved like one, and quite quickly to intercept Dad when that happened. Aunt Laura wrapped me in a protective embrace, Dad just stood there dumbfoundedly.
“Get out of the way,” he started. “My son needs to get changed.” Almost perfect timing the front door opened to the rest of the family walking into the living room, along with Kathy. All of them had heard Dad yelling his last few words.
Poppa and Nana were among those walking into the room. I didn’t know who all had been told what, but when Poppa told Dad to sit down and shut his yap, I knew that my grands had been at least clued in. “There is only one Kathy in this room Dale,” Nana started lecturing Dad, “and you are going to listen to everything she has to say. No interrupting.” Nana left no room for argument.
I hadn’t noticed that Daisy had slipped out of the room undetected until she came back in with Mrs. Beasley and Chatty Kathy. She handed me Kathy just as my counselor started going over the events that lead up to today. “I guess there are two Kathys in the room now,” she paused for a moment while everyone but Dad chuckled. “Is that the doll that started this whole thing?” she questioned.
I shook my head to affirm her question. The whole time she was doing the recap, and getting to MY decision to present as a girl, Dad was getting hotter and hotter under the collar. “Next he’s going to want a boyfriend!” came one snippy response from him.
“Big deal,” Nana commented. “Now shut you mouth like you were told.”
“I’m not going to stand here and listen to this crap!” he bellowed.
“Yes, you are, or you go home alone tonight.” Mom informed him. “Lydia is officially transitioning from male to female, you can get with it or you’ll find you self alone, and divorce proceedings started.”
“I suppose you spent a fortune making him look like a harlot?” Dad tried to get in a sly dig.
“As far as I know, she only paid for one lunch in the last couple days, WE have all supported Lydia in getting a new wardrobe and accessories.” Uncle Stan informed his youngest brother.
“Not true Stan,” Mom said. “No way was I going to let someone else pay for my little girl’s first bra.” If the cartoons could be real, Dad would have had steam blowing out of his ears.
I think Kathy was just watching this all happen so she had some idea of where everyone stood on the subject. It was Poppa that put the issue to rest for the night though. “Dale, I’ve already talked to William about taking over the management. You’ll still be employed, but at the lowest pay rate. My will is already being changed, anything that you would get will now go directly to Lydia in a trust. Linda as the executor of the trust until Lydia has completed college, or ages to twenty-five.
If your prejudices interfere with the development of the child, if there is anymore verbal abuse, if there is a hint of physical abuse, or if you never accept your own child growing into the adult that she or he chooses, you’ll not be welcome. Nor will you have any form of contact. The lawyers are already working it out.”
To everyone’s amazement, Dad just got up and walked out of Uncle Pete’s house. Kathy turned to look directly at me, I think everyone else did too. “How you doing kiddo?” All I could really do was shrug. “I put a rush on your blood work, so by the time you visit my office, I’ll have an idea of where we sit.”
I got up from my seat, walking to Kathy, and wrapped her in a hug, whispering my thanks. Like others always seem to do, she just ruffled my hair and returned the embrace. I immediately moved my hands to my head, trying to make sure she didn’t mess up my hairdo. Most got a chuckle out of that, except the younger boys.
Poppa told everyone they’d see us next week for the fourth of July. Mom took my hand and led me to the guest room as everyone else was leaving. As soon as the door was clothed I got another mother/daughter hug, then just broke down in Mom’s arms. “It’s alright baby.” She repeated several times until I finally felt drained.
Once I had a bit of composure, she got me into something to sleep in, then we cleaned up and crawled into bed, where she held me as I wept myself to sleep. I woke a couple times during the night sobbing, but she was there for me the whole time. I don’t think I could ask for a better mother.
A simple vacation changes a couple's future completely.
Were to Start
Part 1
Where to start? Were to start? I guess, that would be South America, Brazil to be exact. I Jason, and my wife Emily wanted to see The Amazon, and tour Brazil to see if any of the sights from Fast Five showed up. The trip was mainly to see the rainforests, though we'd be in some populated areas quite frequently, so the movie came to mind while we were planning our little expedition.
We flew into Rio, spending a long weekend there, but moved to Salvador for a couple days as well. Spanish from our days of being educated helped, but it wasn't much better than only knowing English would be. Nothing really stood out from the movie, so we weren't inclined to stay any longer than necessary by the coast. Catching an early flight, leaving Salvador behind us, we flew to Manaus.
Other than the sight of the muddy Amazon River, meeting the nearly black waters of the Rio Negro, there really wasn't much to see there, so we spent most of our time in Manaus getting some hiking gear put together. We'd found a guide to help us traverse the rainforests before we left Stuart Florida, we just needed to contact him and let him know we were in the area now, and ready to head out whenever he was. We ended up having to kill one more day in Manaus before he said he'd meet us at the rental company to return our car.
Luiz had a rather spacious amphibious car, not much smaller than a Range Rover. After introductions, Luiz suggested we stop for some camping food, in case we were too far from accommodations when we decided to turn in for the day during the next couple of weeks.
"For the next three weeks, we'll be in and out of jungle habitat," Luiz told us. "There are two places where I will not leave the car. Both have had reports of supernatural occurrences that I'm not willing to be near. I will give some advice, that you can regard as you like, but at those two locations, you are on your own." His warning came across as ominous, neither I nor Emily are superstitious, but we are open minded. We would listen to his advice, and take it from there.
The rainforests were beautiful to all three of us. I can understand why Luiz would keep working as a guide around The Amazon, it was simply breathtaking in many locations. The first site we saw that Luiz warned us about was similar to the Incas in Peru. "I'll stay here on the access road, but if you hear rumbling and the ground feels like it's quaking, move away from any of the dwellings until the calm returns."
We walked the settlement for a bit, until we noticed the rumbling. I wouldn't say what we felt was anywhere near what California's earthquakes, likely felt like. Nor what I would expect to feel at the foot of a volcano starting to erupt, but it was enough to take Luiz' words to heart. Some stray animals were in the area, they too moved away from the structures, except for a small dog that didn't get far enough away. We only noticed the dog when we heard it yelp. Looking in that direction, we saw the end of what I would call a hot spring geyser. Being a lawyer, my mind went to reasons why the geysers were just around the structures. I concluded it had to have something to do with construction of the buildings weakening the ground that they were built on.
When the area returned to its calm state, we tried to check on the dog, but it was standoffish, not an animal you want to get too near, even if only to help it. We looked around a bit more, before heading back to Luiz and his car.
"Got an idea of what you were talking about Luiz," I told him. "Even the animals moved away from any of the structures, except a dog that seemed not much older than a pup."
"Poor beast," he replied. "If it's lucky, it will die soon from its injuries. If not, it could be a horrible existence until it does finally die. Those springs from what I understand are quite painful if they come in contact with the body."
"Is there anyone to notify of the dog?" Emily asked him.
"We don't really have anyone that looks for animals in the rainforests like your humane societies in the states," he answered. "Law of the land here, really. Survival of the fittest, however you want to put it. The cats will probably find the dog before anyone looking would stand a chance."
"The cats?" I asked.
"Jaguars, other big cats, the predators of the rainforests and jungles," he explained. I guess that made sense. "There is a shrine, nobody knows where it came from, or who built it, but that's the other place I will let you out and wait in the car. Several of the big cats are represented, mainly it's statues, but there is also an altar.
We were in our second week with Luiz guiding us when we made it to the shrine. There was an archway that looked like it was crafted out of stone cats piled on top of each other. The archway was the beginning of a long corridor that lead to an immense walled area. The interior of the walled area had to be larger than a professional football stadium. All along the walls were carvings of trees, with large cats prowling their branches. The details were exquisite, so much so, that Emily and I just stood there gawking for several long moments. As the sun grew higher in the sky, it appeared as though color was filling the scenery that we were taking in.
It was nearing midday, and the cats and trees carved into the walls gave a sense of being real. The beasts didn't move an inch, but the colors were what we would expect the live cats to look like. The trees were the color of leaves and bark. The eye colors of the cats varied, yellow, gold, green, a striking slate blue, almost like they were alive with lightning. The ones that looked the most alive were the ones that were green, blue, or a combination of the two.
Then we noticed the statues in the center of the area. Two golden cats stood facing each other, as if trying to get a read on what the other cat was thinking. Walking closer to the two, you could see the detail that they had. If they had been a natural color, one might think twice about approaching them. The smaller of the two had those same blue eyes that many of the ones carved into the walls had. Being a little closer, it was similar to the color you see of the oceans in the tropics that stands out so well in magazines. The larger of the two had the combination of green and blue. Just around the pupil, the green was more vibrant, deeper, richer than any green I had seen before. Imagine a richer green similar to Mountain Dew, that faded into a brilliant aqua.
Both of the cats, although golden, appeared to have real coats of fur. Surely, my eyes had to be playing a trick on me. "Em, does that look like gold fur to you?"
"Yes Hon, that's exactly what it looks like."
Holding hands with Emily, as we do most of the time we are anywhere together, we reached up to feel the cats statues. Em reached for the smaller one, and I reached for other larger one. It felt like real fur, but that was my last thought before I felt a tingling sensation, and lost consciousness. When I felt myself returning to awareness, I looked for Emily. She too was in a state of waking, but her eyes. Holy smokes, they were the same as the smaller cat. I heard a honk, then Luiz yelling, "Mr. and Mrs. Weaver, can you hear me?" He didn't sound very far away, so I called back that I could, getting no reply from him.
I looked at my watch, 11:45. That's odd, we got here around 8:30, it couldn't have been three hours already. Emily was looking at me, and I think she noticed my eyes, as hers were like saucers. "What?" I asked her.
"Your eyes, they match the larger cat's."
"And yours, the smaller cat," I informed her.
We picked ourselves up, and dusted off. Resuming our hand holding, we made our way back out, not even looking for the aforementioned alter. Luiz called us a couple times, and we replied, but we got the feeling he couldn't hear us. He did finally hear us when we got about halfway back out the corridor. I could hear his car running, I could hear the air conditioner, and the radio station he was listening too. More than just my eyes have changed if I'm not mistaken.
We were just about to the car when Luiz looked up from his phone. "Holy Shit," he exclaimed. "That's what gave me the feeling of static electricity two hours ago."
"Huh, what's that Luiz," I asked him.
"About forty-five minutes after you went through the archway, I had a feeling of static cling," he said. "My radio cut out for a couple of seconds, but I thought maybe it was just the reception. What happened in there?"
"That was about the time we checked to see if the statues felt as much like fur as they looked like," Emily explained. "Was that really two hours ago? We heard you call for us about five minutes ago, and called back, but until we got halfway back down the corridor, it didn't sound like you could hear us."
"First time I heard you call back was just a couple minutes ago, I've been calling out to you for half an hour," Luiz explained. "I think it best to make sure you are ready to travel home, then we should get to the airport, and get you the next flight back to the states. You've both already changed eye colors, and I don't know if anything else will happen. This is a place with supernatural tendencies like I said earlier, if more changes happen, I don't think your papers will get you home."
Being lawyers, his last point struck a chord. We readily agreed, and checked our belongings to make sure we were ready to fly. Manaus was only a few hours away, by five we were on First Class standby, with a notation that Business Class would be preferable to a later flight. The last warning we got from Luiz after we thanked him for being our guide was, Stay Awake. Keep an eye on each other for changes, and try to think of something to tell the customs officers about changes we noticed.
We flew home Business class, departure time was 7:55PM. Landing just after midnight on the non-stop flight, we just had to deal with Customs. That was certainly a stalemate for a couple hours. They were of course worried about communicable diseases, since both of us had different eye color to our passports. Mine said hazel, and Emily was listed with green. A bit after 3:00AM we had finally convinced them, with the help of our law degrees that we'd been splashed in the eyes at one of the primitive sites in the rainforest, and we'd need our optometrist to check us out, to make sure we weren't at risk of losing our vision. It was the reason we gave for coming directly home.
We didn't actually make it into Stuart until nearly six in the morning. Once we got in the house both of us passed out, on top of the covers, fully dressed. I opened my eyes, the light was always bright in the early afternoon in our bedroom. Sheer blue curtains mainly colored the room, doing little to block out the sun. The curtains only provided minimal privacy, since our bedroom faced the fenced in backyard. I could smell the male laying close to me, I was ready for him to mount me. That thought seems strange. Then another thought, that seems equally strange, was I would be happy giving birth to two cubs, but three or four would be better.
I saw him sprawled out on the floor, there was a spot of white grass he was laying on. Something wasn't right, why was the grass white? What am I laying on? it doesn't feel like grass. I got up and stretched, then moved towards the male. The dirt is too hard, and why is it this color?
'Jason, can you hear me?' the male growled.
I growled too, 'Of course I can.'
'Jason, I think we are the cats from the statue.' Oh shit! I thought. 'We have to find a way to turn back to human.' he growled.
Were to Start
Part 2
Emily and I had found ourselves in a bit of a predicament. How do you change back to human form if you don't really understand how you ended up as a large predatory cat? We could communicate, but were we automatically interpreting our growls, or was it simply telepathy?
We decided to test out the telepathy first. About the last thing we wanted at this time is for a neighbor or a passerby to hear us growling at each other. About that time, the grandfather clock chimed one in the afternoon. 'Damn, that's a lot louder now,' I thought.
'Definitely,' replied Emily
'Solves that question, doesn't it? I know I didn't growl, and I didn't hear you growling, so it's got to be telepathy,' I answered. 'Now we have to work to get back into human form, and neither of us really has a starting point.'
'Five O'clock, any luck?' I asked Emily.
'None, not even a sensation of any kind,' she informed me.
'Crap, what are we going to do?' It wasn't really a question, more of a thought, but she heard it too, letting me know she didn't have any brilliant ideas about our new dilemma.
'At the moment I only have one idea to help us, but I'm not sure it'll work.' I paused, waiting for Emily to reply, after a moment I just forged on. 'I don't know if our telepathy is just between us, or others. I just thought to Leann; Hutchinson Island, 8pm, bring two largest packages of fresh steaks, and have Steve get two DNA swabs from his friend.'
'You better tell her not to freak out about the cats.' That was a very valid point from her, one that could cause a lot of problems without forewarning. 'Oh yeah, and to let themselves in.'
'If you got my previous instructions, further instructions are to let yourselves in, and not to freak out about the cats.' I hope my thoughts made it to my sister, but I'm not sure. She was pretty intelligent, it's why she was the third partner in our law firm. The law offices of Weaver, Weaver, and Stitch wasn't going to make any of us national lawyers, but it's definitely made us well above comfortable. Leann's family law qualifications are what is likely to provide the most help, assuming she'd show up tonight with her husband Steve.
As it neared eight o'clock we got into positions to block the front and back doors. We knew we may have to block Steve and Leann in, at least long enough to get them to understand what was going on. At ten of, we heard them getting out of the car, so I slipped into a side room near the front door, and Emily went to the back of the house. Steve opened the door, and held it for Leann to come in carrying the steaks. My mouth started watering from the scent, and I think Emily was close enough for the same reaction.
'Leann, please open the packages and leave them sitting in the kitchen sink, then make yourselves comfortable in the living room.' Telepathy definitely has its rewards.
"Okay, steaks are in the sink," Leann called out as she and Steve entered the living room. Steve set a bag down on the coffee table, I sure hope it's the DNA kits.
'Alright Emily, they are ready to meet us, even if they don't know it.' my thought was to Emily, but I couldn't rule out Steve and Leann hearing it too.
We stalked into the living room from both directions, and our instructions were followed but just loosely. While they didn't freak out, we could tell that anxiety was gripping them. To our cat senses, it was close to a stench. We ended our stalking by taking a sitting position on either side of them.
'Leann, Steve, point to one of us, and we'll tell you who you are pointing to.' I instructed my sister and brother-in-law. It was funny, because they both pointed at us, 'Steve you are pointing to Emily, and Leann you are pointing to me, Jason.'
"You're Jason?" Leann questioned. "You sound like a woman, I wasn't sure what was going on. Was it some sort of trick, or an angel talking to me. I had no way to describe it to Steve, but you just saying Hutchinson Island is what convinced me to come tonight, and that it wasn't just my imagination."
'That was kind of the point, given I didn't even know if it would work. Did you try to reply?' I asked.
"Goodness NO! I didn't want to think I was losing it, and I had a client at the time." She continued after a brief pause. "Luckily, we were just getting done. Why DO you sound like a woman anyways?"
'Well, that's because I have female anatomy at the moment.' I replied. "Now that you mention it, I didn't pay attention earlier when Emily and I were trying to figure out if we could resume our human forms, but she sounded like a man, and I knew she was male the second I woke up.'
'Yeah, this thing has a mind of its own.' Emily replied. "How do you get it to go down when you are aroused?" It was so out of left field Steve and I burst into laughter instantly, and Leann was giggling.
"Oh, that's just creepy!" Steve commented. "Hearing your laughter, but also your cats growl at the same time is a bit unsettling." Leann was nodding in agreement, still giggling lightly.
'First things first at this point," I started. "We haven't eaten since early this morning on our way home from Miami. Steve, why don't you grab a couple of steaks out of the sink, and start grilling them for you and Leann, leave the rest in the sink. I know I want mine raw, and I know I'm going to eat quite a bit more than usual. I have to assume the same with Emily.' She nodded. 'Leave the backdoor open, we've been stuck in the house, the changes didn't happen until we got home, and we haven't made any headway changing back. Leann, you may want to go outside with Steve while we eat the rest of the steaks.'
"Yeah, I don't want to see you two being carnivorous," she informed us. "Especially since you both have white fur, and that's going to be a mess."
Once we'd all finished eating, I had Steve make sure the coast was clear, literally. I had him open the back gate to the beach, so Emily and I could take care of mother nature. We definitely didn't want someone seeing the big cats marking the beach. Not to mention, seeing a large predatory cat on the beach may make people a bit leery to go out and enjoy themselves when they wanted to.
It was getting very late by the time we'd gotten lists made up of possible problems, solutions to those problems, food, the DNA kits, and renovations to the property. The funniest thing was watching Steve as he was doing the cheek swabs. Knowing who we were, it did little to alleviate his nervousness about putting his hand near our mouths. We got some hair samples from our brushes to give to Steve. Both of them were in baggies for him to take with. Mine were marked "J-J" and Em's were marked "E-L." I'm not sure how we knew our breed, it had to be inherent knowledge.
Another thing that got worked out is names to match our voices. Telepathic or not, the name Jason sounding like a purring female was disconcerting to my sister and her husband. In my sister's many talks with Mom, she had discovered that I would have been named Briana; while she would have been named Anthony if our genders had been flipped at birth. I guess Emily had similar conversations with her mother. She'd have been called Mark.
Something didn't sit right with me about being Briana and Mark. Emily agreed that it wasn't right for either of us. We chose to go with a Latin derivative for both names. I would be Bianca as a cat, and Emily would be Marcos as a cat. The cats may not have developed in South America, but it was where they were born, so it felt right.
The last thing to take care of before they went home was, as strange as this is to say, babysitting or is it pet sitting? Steve and Leann agreed to "look after our house" for a while. Renovations had to be made, and someone would need to be here. We couldn't afford for a contractor to be here without Leann or Steve present. Marcos and I would have to chill out on the second floor while the contractors were adding handicap access to parts of the house.
The following day Steve showed up at nine in the morning, but Leann went into the office. Leann had a lot to do to get things straightened out for us. She had to use her power of attorney for a few items. Steve let us know when he was outside that he had a friend with him. He'd need some help emptying out one of the rooms upstairs. While his friend was in the house, we stayed in our bedroom out of sight. By ten o'clock they'd emptied out one of the rooms, and started laying a lush carpet down in there. Around eleven thirty, he let me know they were leaving, and that he was going to meet his friend that worked in a lab. He wanted to hand over the four samples and leave strict instructions on comparisons, not to mention the tech's observations on the two swabs. I didn't say anything, but I hope he tried to put a rush on it.
When they got back to the house that night, Leann and Steve looked like they'd drop dead if given half a chance. Steve had stopped at a meat market and picked up a side of beef, poor guy had to lug it in by himself. 'Next time, pull your truck into the garage to unload, my jaw can hold a great deal more weight than your arms,' I told him.
"Good idea Bianca."
Another good idea I had was having the contractors show up over the weekend, so Steve and Leann wouldn't have to put in extra hours just to keep an eye on them. Handicap switches on the back gate, and a shallow septic tank, with a manhole in the top of it. Steve ended up covering that with a fake tree stump so it didn't look out of place. The purpose of it was, known only to us four, a place Marcos and I could do our business without having to leave the back gate. Hit the handicap switch to open it, and then again to close it, same with the one on the back gate.
I was so glad they got it all done on Saturday, as Sunday would be all to ourselves. Marcos and I were laying in the room with the new carpet, and I was thinking, 'I need to wake up human.' I guess I was thinking out loud, Marcos heard my thought, he too thought the same thing. We decided that we both needed to be thinking it until sleep overtook us.
Dreams that night were wicked, and a bit rough. I don't normally remember my dreams, what I do remember tends to be fleeting, and soon forgotten. I'm pretty certain I've never remembered more than one dream per night, and if I did remember more than one, it was due to waking up in the middle of the night, and then again in the morning. So it was strange to know that I was remembering more than one dream Saturday night.
The first dream I took as simply symbolic. It was Marcos and I chasing Jason and Emily from the site that we'd been transformed into the cats we now were. In the dream, we had already attained our cat forms. We didn't pursue them any further than the archway, so I have to assume at this point Jason and Emily still exist in some form, though we may never know.
The second dream was Marcos and I standing at the altar Luiz had told us about, that we never actually got around to looking at. We were in a human form, each of us holding the hands of two children that were no more than five years in age. The strange thing about it at the time, Marcos had an Asian Latino appearance, while I looked decidedly Latina.
In the third dream, Marcos and I had found that poaching was going on in our rainforest, this would not do. As the dream progressed, we tracked the poachers, cornered them, and left one alive, though he was certainly not that well off. However, we needed him to stay alive, so he could let others know that poaching wasn't going to be acceptable in our rainforest. A little telepathic nudge, so he knew if he said anything about "who" the protectors were, he'd suffer much more than the disfigurement we left him with.
The last dream I remembered, Luiz was back at the shrine, and telling his clients that it was unwise to touch anything while in the shrine. As he was doing so, some thugs ran up and tried to rob the guide and the tourists. Marcos, myself, and four of our nearly grown cubs came charging out of the shrine, and surrounded the would be robbers, their fear was almost tangible. Once they ran off, we were able to calm Luiz and his clients down. We extended our hospitality to the three of them to enter the shrine, letting Luiz know that he'd been our previous guide when we were Jason and Emily.
As I awoke, I could still smell the male, my mate. The scent had dissipated, but the lingering desire to be mounted and have our cubs was still there.
Were to Start
Part 3
"Marcos, I feel weaker this morning." I hadn't opened my eyes yet, but the diminished scent of Marcos, and the feeling of having less strength needed to be expressed.
"There's a good reason for that Bianca." His reply caught me off guard, I heard it with my ears. My eyes opened in a flash, to see his smiling face. The same face he had at the altar in my dream. "Good morning beautiful." I couldn't help it, I smiled back, a full on ear to ear smile.
"You sure are a handsome devil, I thought it was only in my dream that you'd look that way. I need to look in a mirror to see if I look the same as my dream." I was curious now how I looked.
"You look the same as in mine," he told me. "It was us at the altar with four kids. I had others, poachers, Luiz, our children, and oddly as it seems, chasing ourselves off."
He could see the shock on my face, giving me a questioning look, I replied before he needed to ask. "One poacher left alive, and disfigured?"
"Yep, I guess we had the same dreams." His was a pretty solid conclusion.
"I don't think a mirror is necessary anymore, if that's the case. However, we now have one more problem to add to the list, one that definitely needs a solution." I'm sure he was thinking the same thing as me. "Identity for the new looks, wouldn't you agree."
He nodded, "Just what I was thinking."
'Can we still talk like this? Or is it think like this?' I asked him.
'I remember my parents having discussions like this,' he told me. 'I always wondered how they communicated without words. I don't think they have what we do, but it would explain a lot of how they came to agreements when I got out of line.'
"Let's go crawl into our bed." I had a sneaky smile on my face when I said it to him.
"Leann and Steve are sleeping in it," was his retort.
"I know, that's what will make it so fun, you snuggle up to Leann, and I'll do the same to Steve. I want to see their reactions." Marcos just smiled and shook his head. Emily had always been the more playful of the two of us prior to Brazil, I guess one more thing has flipped.
We were able to slip into our bedroom, and cuddle up to my sister and her husband, but they started waking only a very short time after we had started our mischief. Leann was the first to full wake and she almost completely freaked out. Steve was woken mostly from the commotion his wife was making mixed with the laughter from Marcos and I were unable to control. Steve then joined us in laughing at Leann's reaction, but still attempted to mock scold us for a dirty trick.
Leann decided we needed to be formally scolded though, and she was doing a good job of it until I said, "Lilo, learn to live and laugh a bit."
"Oh, I hate that name, why do you still call me that?" she queried.
"Oh, I don't know, how 'bout because you married at Stitch?" It was about that time that Steve finally put the nickname into his thinking cap and realized what I had been doing to my sister. His laughter was comparable to one of our roars as cats, and it went unabated for some time. I guess he thought it was a childhood nickname, that she got because Lilo and Leann start the same. He didn't realize I had given it to her after she started seeing him.
"Ok, new plan." It was an exclamation, but it brought attention to me that I needed. "We have an identity problem. One that needs to be resolved quickly. I don't know if we can only change during sleep, but I know that's when both changes have occurred. So tonight, Marcos and I are going to sleep thinking about waking up as Jason and Emily. If it works, we go to sleep tomorrow night thinking about Marcos and Bianca. Tuesday night, we go to sleep thinking about waking up as cats, and Wednesday we do it as Jason and Emily again."
"Why all the changes?" Marcos asked.
"For one," I started, "we need to know if we can change at will during the night. We also need to know if we can make the desired changes. I don't know about you, but I do know I have a strong desire right now to return to the shrine, and I don't think those dreams were just dreams. I have a feeling they were telling us something, and we need to start acting on accomplishing those goals."
"Yes, I have the same feelings." Marcos' confirmation strengthened my resolve.
"If that's the case, we have more to do than we thought. We may even have to sell our portions of the firm to Leann." Looking at Leann I continued, "We will both give you names of people who don't have partnerships that would be good to replace us for corporate and small business, with good experience if it comes to that." Leann just gave me one of those, 'What can you do' smiles.
"If we are being drawn back to Brazil like I think, I want to be prepared going there." My comment about being prepared drew perplexed looks for all three of them. "But first, let's all get showered and go have breakfast."
Marcos started chuckling, and we all looked at him. "What? she's still got that sexy purr in her voice." It was funny, and all of us were laughing harder from that comment that even our hijinks this morning.
We had changed forms, that wasn't really a problem, this form was better for Stuart Florida than say a Jaguar running loose on Hutchinson Island, but now I was close to the size Emily had been, and Marcos was a bit taller and broader than Jason had been. Clothes that Steve had brought would be used for Marcos for today, and I could use Emily's old stuff. She'd gained a bit, like I had being lawyers, but not too much, so some of her clothes were too small and hadn't be cleared out. Those were the ones that fit me best. We were going to do some shopping today, after getting breakfast. Leann would have to pay for it all, and we'd just transfer the total into her account.
I think the waitress at Perkins was a bit shocked by the amount of food, primarily meat, that Marcos and I were able to put away. Leann was just shaking her head watching us. "Wow, I could never eat that much, nor would I try."
"Oh yeah?" I asked. At her nod, I asked, "Not even with a mystical transformation?" The look on her face said she hadn't even thought of that.
Over breakfast, and part way into our shopping, we discussed getting the four parents to spend a long weekend with us. It would have to start on a day that we could be Jason and Emily, if we could obtain those forms again. If not, we'd have to do it as Marcos and Bianca, then try to find a way to convince them who we actually were. On top of that, we'd have to show them our cat forms, and explain our being drawn back to brazil.
Emily had always been a loose skirt and blouse type, topped with flip flops. I had always been a shorts and sandals kinda guy. Leaving the house in Emily's old clothes had been an experience, but once we got some shopping done, I was very glad to get out of them flip flops, some wedged sandals are what I settled on. I went with more fitted tops, and since I didn't have the C cup breasts Emily had, I had to get fitted, turns out I'm a B cup. The sports bra that was able to get me by was not going to be missed. Bras that actually fit were so much better.
Our main focus for shopping though was a few casual clothes and lots of active wear. If we were going back to Brazil, and I'm sure that was going to be the case, we wanted to do some training in various combat styles. Our talk over breakfast indicated that our purpose would likely be as protectors. Once we explained the dreams that we had shared, Steve and Leann came to the same conclusion that we did. They were not dreams as much as forewarnings.
As we finished up lunch, Leann and I went to the ladies room. I pulled my shorts and panties down, getting another big shock. Blood, and it had the strangest of scents to it. I'm sure it was because of my heightened sense, because it was overpowering, but not as much as it would be to indicate food. "Um, Leann?"
"Yeah?" she answered from the stall next to me.
"You know that talk that mothers give their daughters around eleven the thirteen years of age?" I asked cautiously.
"Already?" was her response.
"Yep, got anything for it?" I heard her pulling something out of her purse, then saw it under the stall wall. "Thanks."
'Wow, I really didn't expect you to start your period on your first day as a human girl.' I caught her thinking to me.
'Yeah, but it explains why I have been wanting Marcos to mount me each day when I wake up.' I replied. Leann just laughed. I wonder if anyone else is in here that heard, but I didn't hear anything. I do have great hearing now, so I'm pretty certain we were alone.
It was great being out and about all day long, but equally great once we got back home. There is just something about being home that settles people. The new experiences from the other side of the fence was nice also. There are some things that are more uncomfortable, and some that are better, but it wasn't bad either way.
Before we went to bed, Marcos suggested to Leann to see if she didn't have a friend that was a sitting judge that deals with identity. If so, to see if she could get us an appointment after sessions for a private meeting with the judge, as long as we woke up as Jason and Emily.
We went to be in the carpeted room, nude with just the covers over us. Waking as cats wouldn't likely do much to clothing we wore, as last time they just transformed with us, but waking up as Marcos had definitely strained the clothing Emily was wearing when she transformed into the leopard. Likewise, the clothes I had been wearing the night I changed into the jaguar had been very loose on my Bianca form. It had been a subject that was breached only is passing really. The only clothing we took into the room with us was a robe that each of us could put on when we woke.
Two days in a row, two successful transformations. I knew it was a success immediately, because I didn't have that desire to be mounted. I was Jason again, my wife was Emily again, and her shining green eyes were smiling at me when I looked at her. "Green and Blue?" I asked.
"Yes, and they are just as beautiful," she informed me.
We went downstairs, and started working on breakfast. They were happy to see that we were mostly back to normal, also remarking on our eyes not changing back. Leann was going to work on getting a chambers appointment for the end of the day. The rest of us were going back to our seemingly normal jobs, but only Steve would be doing his normal days work. Emily and I were going to be lining up those we felt could work our law specialties. We set tentative appointments for Thursday as we were planning on that being the next time we'd be our original selves, though they didn't need to know that. We explained our trip to Brazil, and being drawn back to it as a reason.
The day was going really well. We had several meetings set up for Thursday, and Leann let us know that Judge MacKenzie would see us at 5:30. We were not at all prepared for the Judge. Once we explained what we wanted to accomplish she asked us if we were just wasting her time, or if we could prove it. I could see how things could go south, but I also saw an option that neither Leann nor Emily had thought of. I invited her to spend the night with us. Steve and I could put a recliner in the room that Emily and I would be sleeping in, and she could watch the transformation herself.
I really hadn't expected her to accept the offer, but she did. Then she hit us with the reason she was accepting our offer. "There is a legend in our family. An American some time ago was at a bed and breakfast with his wife. He had heard of a Torc that was lost to time, but there was a suspicion that it was near that bed and breakfast. When he found the Torc and put it on, he became Tamsyn, she'd disappeared centuries ago during the Saxon's destructive reign. I am actually her namesake. If your story is true, and I see that you take the forms of this Marcus and Bianca, I can get the paperwork done for your identities."
That was a lot to take in, but if other people are looking for proof of paranormal, it set us at ease to know of it as well. We concluded we couldn't be the only ones touched by paranormal, and causally wondered how many others had, as we saw them, on our way home. She let us know that most people outside of the courtroom called her Tammy, but she would like it very much if we called her Tamsyn. It was the least we could do, given what she was getting ready to do for us.
We had porkchops for dinner that night, we'd decided to leave the side of beef that Steve had picked up alone for the time being while we were in our human forms. Tamsyn was a bit shocked at the amount that Emily and I put away. She commented on our sizes, which had improved since changing back, likely paranormal related. Explaining that we were now both in top physical condition since the change, and that we would probably remain that way as long as we had the chance to change into cats satisfied her. The one thing about the dinner that sort of threw me for a loop was the desire for fresh peccary.
Steve got a call from his lab tech friend. It turns out the hair sample marked "J-J" was male and closely matched the swab sample of an female jaguar that had some human strains. Likewise, the hair sample marked "E-L" was female and closely matched the swab sample of a male leopard with human strains. Tamsyn was listening closely I noticed.
Steve and I set up a recliner and blanket for Tamsyn in the carpeted room, then all of us headed for bed fairly early. We didn't want her to have to stay awake too long, and hoped that the changes happened soon after we were asleep.
Morning dawned brightly. The need to be mounted was back, and my male was right beside me. I rolled over and kissed Marcos, he'd been staring at me again. Both of us laughed when we heard, "I'm not going to interrupt something am I?" Tamsyn sure broke that mood, but it was still good. Exiting the room she said, "I'll see you downstairs."
We had a great breakfast with Steve, Leann, Tamsyn, Marcos and I enjoying it in the backyard. We invited Tamsyn back if she wanted to watch the cat transformation tonight, but she declined. "That won't be necessary. You actually turned into two white cats before you took the forms you are in now."
"Oh, that might be something I want to see, maybe set up one of our phones to watch the three different transformations, so we know what happens each time." The idea that we'd changed form more than once was something that I didn't expect. "Maybe the cat has to happen between each human form." We were certainly going to start documenting the changes after that realization.
At ten o'clock a courier knocked on the door with a package for us. Judge Tamsyn MacKenzie was listed as the sender. I guess she got to work right away once she made it to her office. I called Leann to let her know we'd need a ride to DMV, so we could get our IDs made. She showed up around one o'clock and Steve met us there. Once our written tests were taken care of, we used both of their cars to go with our instructors for the road tests. They dropped us off, to go back to work, and we got in our car to head to Social Security Administration. I don't think any of this would be possible if Tamsyn hadn't spent the night, but documents with her signature sure made quick work of creating identities.
We did spend Wednesday as a jaguar and leopard. Leann had the foresight to leave a bunch of meat in the sinks, so we would be able to eat. Knowing our intentions, we did move it from the freezer on Tuesday night, into the fridge, so it would have time to thaw. It wasn't as much as they brought with them that first night they saw our cat forms, mainly because we'd have a chance to eat again later, but it was delicious, no matter the quantity.
When Leann and Steve got home we all watched the transformation from human to cat form. There wasn't a second transformation, so we know it's human to cat only for our South American forms.
Thursday was meetings all day long. We did some paperwork in between for the sale of our portions of the practice to Leann. The interviews, as we thought of them, were conducted by Emily and I separately, so we could gauge each one, and make the offer to who we thought would work best with my sister. We got together with Leann to tell her who we felt the best about, who we didn't think would work and why. After hearing our assessments, she agreed with Emily's choice, but wanted to try the one I would have picked second. We called the selected two up to invite to dinner at a local Italian restaurant. We were pleased that they hit it off well with Steve and especially Leann. We could now go to Brazil knowing we weren't leaving her in a lurch.
There was still more to do, but first thing we had to do was get mine and Emily's parents to stay over through the weekend, and hopefully starting tonight.
Were to Start
Part 4
Emily's parents were easy to talk into staying through the weekend. They loved invites whenever we offered, it wasn't far from West Palm, so they'd get here shortly after they left. We just hoped they wouldn't freak out. My folks, not so easy. Dad had a Saturday tee time and didn't want to cancel it. I had to pull my trump card and get my mother on the phone. When I told her it was necessary to come through the weekend, she wanted to know why. We are moving to Brazil got her motivated, and she told Dad he could golf any of the three hundred and sixty-four other days of the year. He tried using the four days that they'd be visiting from Delray Beach as four less, so only three hundred and sixty, it didn't work for him.
They showed up within minutes of each other, no idea how they timed that. Both fathers were oblivious, but both of our mothers commented on our eyes. We explained that it was the reason they were here. My mother gave me one of her reproachful looks, essentially telling me that if Dad cancelled his tee time because my eyes changed, she was going to be very disappointed that they were here under false pretences. What could I do, 'It's a lot more complicated Mother, but we'll get to that in a bit.' I thought to her. Emily heard it too, but I intended her to. She smiled as my mother's eyes grew in their sockets.
After we'd all eaten, and well I might add, with meat from the side of beef, we retired to the living room. All four parents wanted to know what was going on, and when we had decided we were moving to Brazil. I guess Emily's parents didn't get that much information before then, because they seemed really shocked at that part of it. It took a while to explain it to them, as they kept interrupting how we came to our decision.
Dad was mad that he had cancelled a tee time on a farfetched story, so we told them to sleep on it, and not be surprised if he woke up with a jaguar or a leopard staring at him. I didn't think I needed to say anything like that to mom, because she'd already heard me telepathically. We got funny looks from all four parents as Steve and I pulled a large amount of meat out of the freezer to put in the refrigerator to thaw. Steve informed them it was for lunch tomorrow. Dad was just shaking his head as they went to bed for the night. Mom passed the carpeted room and commented on it, so we told her that's where we sleep on nights that a change is likely.
Marcos and I woke before dawn, and slipped out back. We had some business to do that isn't something you'd want to see. Once we answered natures call, we went back inside. I guess the handicap triggers are noisier than we realized, because all of the parents were in the dining room when we walked back in. Fear was gripping them and holding on tightly.
'Moms, Dads, calm down, it's us, Jason and Emily,' I told them. 'Although in this form, we are Marcos and Bianca.' Our mothers recognized our Latin versions of our names. They calmed down much faster than the dads did.
We sat down in the pose you see many cats doing when they are preening, it really felt narcissistic. "Oh my! You two sure are beautiful like that," my mother said.
"They certainly are," Marcos' mother agreed.
"Which of you is Bianca?" my mother asked.
When I moved to her and resumed my sitting position, she reached to stroke my head. "That's rather daring Diane." Marcos mother said.
"Alice, it's wonderful, her coat is so soft and smooth," my mother told her.
That was about the time Steve and Leann came out of our bedroom. The dads were more shocked at that than our mothers, I guess they didn't realize the rooms were all in use, and we'd slept upstairs in the carpeted room.
Steve and Leann made breakfast for everyone except us, we'd eat a bit later. That got questioning looks until we explained they probably didn't want to watch us eat if they wanted to keep their appetites. After breakfast, Steve got a tee time for himself and our fathers, so they were gone most of the morning.
While they were gone, we sat with our mothers and explained more about the dreams and the draw to go back to Brazil. We wanted them to understand how we interpreted the dreams as essentially a calling from the rainforest. We also explained that we had some things that needed to be taken care of first, and that our goal was six to nine months that we'd aim for.
When they asked what we were planning to do, we went into greater detail. They agreed wholeheartedly that really concentrating on learning Portuguese was probably for the best. There was some mild concern as we let them know about the different kinds of combat training we wanted to get into, as well as archery. We had to tell them in-depth about the poachers, as the attackers on the tourists.
There were smiles and tears, and happiness and concern for us. The most emotional we saw them was when we told them of the cubs that we'd both seen. That alone was what I think settled it for them. We knew they'd be down to visit as often as possible. It was going to be one of those battles of wills with my father, but my mother-in-law ensured us that it wouldn't be that way with Marcos father.
While Leann was making lunch, Steve brought our fathers back. Steve took the remaining thawed meat, beyond what the rest of them were eating and put it in a turkey pan, setting that out on the patio deck for Marcos and I. The others ate inside, while we ate outside. We took the time to clean each other up before going back into the house.
"Those handicap switches are a great idea," Marcos father said. "What do you think Stan?"
"Lee, we have some pretty smart kids," Dad replied. "It's no wonder they thought of that, I saw one by the back gate too."
Leann laughed, turning all heads to her. "You didn't see the other one did you?" she asked. at the shaking of heads she said, "There's one for the um.... litter box" Steve, myself and Marcos thought it was hilarious, but our parents were shaking their heads.
"Still creepy," said Steve. "When they laugh in those predatory forms, it's kind of scary" he told our parents.
Saturday rolled around, we woke up in our Latin identities. If Dad was having trouble with our cat forms, he really had trouble seeing his other daughter. Mom, Alice and Lee were quite liking the change. It took most of the morning to get Dad to understand that the jaguar was my new natural form, and that natural was now female. So Bianca is the human form of my jaguar.
We spent Saturday and Sunday entertaining our parents, so they had as much time to get used to the new us as possible. We would be inviting them back over the next six to nine months to spend as much time as possible with Marcos and Bianca, while we were working on Portuguese, martial arts, archery, and anything else we felt we needed to learn before moving.
Over the next six months we had become proficient in the language, and archery, but we excelled in the martial arts. We hadn't decided if we were going to sell the house, so we made sure Leann had a current power of attorney. We had a real estate agent find us a piece of property that had some dwellings on it a couple hours west of Manaus. It was less than half an hour from the shrine by car, so as the jaguar and leopard, it wouldn't take long to make the trek.
We had Leann put anything over one hundred thousand into investments for us. We wanted access to money if we needed it, but it wouldn't be necessary to have all of our money free. Some of it may as well be working for us, and our kids when we had them. We could always let her know if we needed more available.
The new house was really no more than a hut. It had a couple of rooms, water was from a well, and no electricity. If we needed any modern comforts, we'd have to go to a motel, or at least spend some time in a nearby town. It wasn't something we were worried about, as we planned on spending most of our time as the cats.
We left most of our stuff in Stuart, and just took some luggage to Brazil. If we needed something shipped then Leann would send it to us once we got settled in. We left Jason and Emily's legal documents with her as well. It would be difficult to explain to customs officers why we had them in our possession. Mailing them at a later date would be much easier, as they could come in a package.
The Uber dropped us off at the hut, where we found a couple of dressers with some rudimentary drawers. As we mainly just brought active wear, we didn't need much else. That first night we fell asleep thinking of the cats.
Waking in the morning, the wanton desire to be mounted was stronger than it had ever been. Marcos was laying with his head on top of his crossed front paws. As much as we wanted to mate, we decided to put it on the back burner for the time being. We really needed to get to know the rainforests around us, and being pregnant wasn't the way I wanted to learn it.
First on the agenda was to visit the shrine. We had no problem finding it, we were essentially being called there. We kept alert of our surroundings, knowing that there were poachers, we didn't want to walk into one of their traps. Not being in a hurry, so that we could be careful, it took just over an hour and a half to get there, though with only the sun to indicate time, that could be a bit off.
Walking through the archway, we got a feeling that it was exactly where we should be. We walked past the statues of the cats that caused our transformations to The Altar. Putting our front paws on the altar, we got a intense sense that it was something we should have done all those months ago. All kinds of information was flooded into our minds, everything from the balance of life forms in the rainforest, to mating, to threats like poachers.
One of the more interesting things that we found out is we can now change to human on demand. We could instantly change into any of the cats in the Panthera genus now. If we wanted to, we could also change to several of the lesser cats, such as the cheetah, lynx, bobcats and wildcats. We decided that we needed to have our bows and quivers on us when we changed into any of the cat forms, so if we came out of the form, they'd be ready.
In about a month's time, we'd become very familiar with our rainforest. The last guardians of the rainforest, according to what we learned from The Altar, had been gone for twenty years, and humans were making themselves too comfortable. We spent a lot of time at The Altar, we were learning more of the rainforest, the ecology, and tactics we could use to help push out the poachers and other such trespasser.
Nearly two months after we'd returned and started learning what we needed as the protectors, we heard a car pulling up near the archway. This was the first time one had stopped while we were at the shrine. We could tell by the sounds that reached our exceptional hearing Luiz was taking clients around, and this was one of his stops. It seemed odd that we hadn't had our cubs yet, but the two of us were really all that was needed for this.
We knew what was going to happen, and started running towards the archway. The thugs were already getting out of their car and surrounding Luiz and his clients when we cleared the entrance to the shrine. The scene played out exactly as it had in our dream. The only noticeable difference was the stench of fear, and loss of bodily fluids of the robbers.
Luiz and his clients looked at us, our eyes put Luiz at ease. "Dear Lord, thank you two for coming when you did."
We decided to make a change, one that hadn't been an option in the dream at that point. We transformed into our Latin human forms. "Luiz, come inside, and bring your guests along. I would recommend not touching anything while you are here though." Luiz and his two clients, not dissimilar to Jason and Emily followed us into the shrine.
The awe on their faces was immediate and long lasting. "First time in Luiz?" Marcos asked him.
"Yes, I've driven many people here over the years, but have stayed out due to the reports of things happening," he replied. "Are you the couple from Florida, you don't look anything like them."
"We are," Marcos said. "But I was Emily, and Bianca was Jason. We took the spirit of the cats we were touching, and were drawn back after our first full change. We knew you would be bringing clients here, and that you would be attacked, so we have been here at The Altar, learning everything it has to teach it's protectors."
"We also knew you would not be harmed," I told him. "We had a dream, at the same time, the same exact dream, where we first saw these forms. Both of us got the sense or feeling that it was us being called back to protect the rainforests, and today just proves it to us."
"The fur looks so real," the female client said as she was inspecting a statue.
"It feels real too, but you don't want to touch it," I told her. "If you do, you'll have just enough time to make it home before you become a lynx, and that one will not allow you to change back."
There was some more small talk, and pictures with each of us in our cat forms. We taught Luiz to reach us telepathically, so he could give us a heads up if he was bringing someone this way. Apparently if we weren't going to be at the shrine, he would not get out of the car. If we were, he was invited to bring his clients as long as they agreed not to touch anything.
Six months after Luiz' first visit, we got to meet the poachers, this time we didn't try to deviate from what we saw in the dream. We wanted to make sure people knew poaching would be a death sentence. Luiz did bring clients quite often, many times he had to skip the shrine as he felt his clients couldn't be trusted. There were however, several that he brought to meet us, and were wonderful to talk to.
Just before the two year mark, we had our first litter. The Altar told us not to change forms at all until the cubs were not longer treating me as a vending machine. Marcos was great at hunting for the family. When I could finally change back to human, I was instructed to bring the cubs to The Altar. With all of us at The Altar I could change back to human and the young would change when I did, until they were old enough to be on their own. Two cubs in the first litter, and two more in the second.
Our parents visited fairly regularly, and Steve and Leann came along quite often. The kids were doted on, but our parents knew that they wouldn't be using toys or clothes much, so it really was just some goodies when they came to visit.
As cubs, they would snub just about anything that wasn't fresh meat or seafood. If they switched to human form, they absolutely loved cake.
We spent fifteen years in Brazil before Leann sold our house, and got something set up for the kids future, but I had a good idea that any fortune we had made from being lawyers, and later investors was going to go to Steve and Leann's two ruffians and their little princess. Our cubs were now full grown protectors of the rainforest.
The Alter had educated our children, and let them know it was time to switch to human form to find a mate. If they found someone worthy, The Alter would let them know, their mate would be enlightened and directed to the right statue to make the change. All four had found mates to help them protect the rainforest.
It wasn't long before The Altar let us know we would soon be grandparents. The rainforest was going to be well protected.
The End.
Just something silly that popped into my head a couple months ago, wasn't sure if it would go anywhere... and the muse balks when I open the word document.
You can't go like that!
Shelly: You can't go like that, you need a costume
Mark: This IS a costume, this is how I'm going
Shelly: That's not a costume, that's a disguise.
Mark: What the hell is the difference? I look like a woman don't I?
Shelly: That's the problem, you look like a Woman, not a man in a costume. Remember last year Sandra didn't dress up, she didn't get tipped, and she's drop dead gorgeous.
Shelly: Ok, I'll prove it to you, but you have to agree now to go along for the ride, and not balk.
Mark: I'll go along for the ride, but I want some idea what's going to happen on this "prove it" mission
Shelly: no dice, either yes or no, or I'm done helping
Mark: fine.
Stan: Shelly, I can't go out with her, my boyfriend doesn't mind me going out with other guys from time to time, but he gets pissy if I am anywhere near a woman.
Shelly: C'mon Stan, just this time as a favor for me, tell Keith Nina needed an escort.
Stan: Keith is going to say I needed a beard, and that I'm switchin' sides, he won't understand.
Shelly: Ok, get him on the phone, and I'll talk to him
Shelly get's Keith's OK
Mark: So I have to go out on a date with a Football Jock, NO WAY
Shelly: You agreed to a "prove it"
Stan and Nina have a great date.
Mark: What do you suggest then? Thor? Ironman? they'll be difficult to serve food in costumes like that
Shelly: What about Black Widow?
Mark: That's a Woman! It's the same difference!
Shelly: Do the woman's costume, I bet you make bank!
Mark Makes Bank
Mark: Dave I made a LOT of money on Halloween, what would happen if I were to show up to work in Drag?
Dave: You'd probably have better tips, and sell more anyways. But I'd have to speak to the owners to see if they'd allow it.
Mark: Let me know
Marks dad Wayne: What the hell are you doing in a skirt Mark
Mark as Nina: Going to work, I want to see how the tips are if I work as a woman, I made four times what I did last Halloween going as Black Widow.
Marks mom Nancy: I hope you don't get yourself stuck doing this.