Bruce Finds His Rainbow. Part 1
Bruce Grayson was aptly named. He was the epitome of a grey person. His complexion was grey-ish; his clothing was grey-ish because all the schools he had attended had uniforms that were uniformly some shade of grey. The only thing not grey about him was his shoulder length brown hair.
And average, yes he was an average person – average height, average weight, average attitude, average intelligence. Bruce was one of those who faded into the background. He had the usual number of friends but was not really close to any, he just made up the numbers in any team he was picked for. He didn’t even stand out as being bad at anything, no, he did well enough at most sports not to get shouted at but never well enough to be given extra training. His grades were average; he had enough marks to complete his schooling with a certificate but not enough to go on to higher learning. He even had grey dreams, no colour in his life at all.
He got along with both boys and girls, as someone who was part of the group but not someone who would give some input. He had been out with a couple of girls who were almost as grey as himself and he could not see any meaning to it in the end. The evenings went well, pictures and a snack and maybe even a chaste kiss at the end of it, but there was never any spark that urged him to push for a second date and the girls didn’t seem to be put out by not being asked. The only thing he did out of the ordinary was to write poetry, using an old Corona typewriter because it slowed him down and made sure his thoughts were fully explored.
His biggest problem was that he lived in an average, grey house, in an average, grey road. The road was situated in a grey industrial city, in the grey, industrial midlands, and there was very little chance for him to see vivid colour. Even when he went into town the people around him seemed muted, somehow. The only splash of colours came, other than the traffic lights, was when he went to the cinema, the colours on the screen exciting his senses with vivid flashes of red and blue and green and every colour in-between. When he emerged from such wonderful experiences he felt sad to be coming back to his grey existence.
When he left school his parents told him that he needed to get a job as they were not prepared to support him any longer. He went to agencies and scoured the newspapers but didn’t seem to be able to find anything he could do that didn’t need some sort of flair or expertise that he didn’t have. Then he saw an advert for a warehouse worker in a distribution company that was on his side of town. He rang the number and got himself an appointment for an interview. This was almost an occasion for rejoicing as getting this far had been eluding him.
He lived close enough to be able to cycle to the warehouse which, unsurprisingly, was a large grey building with the words ‘SupplyMode Distributors’ in large black letters over the door. After he had chained his bike to a rack he went inside, his satchel with all his paperwork over his shoulder. The receptionist was the most colourful woman he had ever seen, with a bright red pantsuit over a lavender blouse and she even had red fingernails, something he had never seen his mother wear. She told him to sit down and that Mr Jackson would be along to see him.
When Mr Jackson came into reception Bruce was amazed as the man was wearing a forest green suit with a yellow tie. Bruce was almost hyperventilating at the absurdity of the colours around him. Led to an office that was painted in a light blue, Mr Jackson took him through his experience and aptitude and Bruce proved likely to be a good, average, worker who would turn up every day and so got the job. The job was simply moving things around in the warehouse, loading and unloading trucks, cleaning up and making sure that the workplace remained a safe and clean environment, tasks which Bruce was ideally suited to as nothing required flair or original thought.
He was given a look inside the big part of the building and the first thing that caught his eye was that everyone was wearing hi-vis clothes and he almost backed out with the concept of wearing vivid orange shirts but swallowed and just accepted that some sacrifices needed to be made if he was going to be able to continue to live at home. There were doors where trucks came in and the centre of the building was racks for storage. The other side was a loading bay where smaller trucks were loaded with goods going out. It all seemed very ordered and this gave some relief to Bruce as he would never be able to manage something chaotic.
He was told that he could start the following Monday and was taken to a room where he was measured and weighed “Just so we know where we start and to get your safety clothes made up and to get your safety boots in.” They said for him to be there at seven in the morning to go through induction but his normal starting time would be seven-thirty. He rode home to tell his parents that he was now a working lad and they celebrated by getting extra chips with the fish that evening. His father had an extra bottle of beer but Bruce was too excited to eat or drink much. That weekend he had flashes of red; green and orange appear in his dreams.
Come Monday morning he wore his tidiest jeans and a grey shirt under his duffle coat to ride to the warehouse. A security guard let him in and took him to a room where he was taken through all the dos and don’ts that are needed to know when working with trucks, fork-lifts and large boxes. He was shown how to lift without bursting anything and finally presented with his locker key and a set of work clothes and boots. He was then taken to the change room where he was shown his locker and the showers should he want to take one. By this time other men had arrived and were changing into the safety shirts and boots.
Bruce found that he had been given two pairs of thick trousers and two shirts but just one pair of boots. He also had an orange beanie and a baseball cap. When he changed into his new garb he saw that his shirt had an odd name embroidered above the pocket. It was ‘Bree’ in red script. As he looked at the other shirt and cap, which had the same name, another guy came over to him and said “Welcome to the job, young lad. I see you have noticed the name on your shirts. The problem is that we already have three men called Bruce in the building. I am Brucey, the chap over there in the corner with the white hair is the original Bruce, and the chap just to your left with the curly hair is a far northerner so he got called Bru, as after Irn-Bru. I will be looking after you in your first few weeks and we do unloading of the big trucks as they come in. I reckon there will be a couple backed in already so we had better get going. I will show you the time-clock as we go out, there should be a card there for you today. Make sure you put the cap on to keep your hair from swinging around.”
Bruce followed Brucey and clocked on, then going to the far end of the building where there were two trucks backed into the unloading dock and the drivers were opening the doors. He was introduced to Geoff and Bill and also to the foreman of the unloading, Mr Morrison, and then they got to work. It was not too taxing as he was shown that some boxes had different colour tags on them and these went into storage bays with the same colour. Brucey drove a fork-lift to pick up the bigger boxes and the main thing that Bruce needed to do was co-ordinate his movements so that he didn’t get run over. They cleared the truck in an hour and Brucey gave him a slap on the back and said “Well dome, young Bree, you picked up the tempo very well, I bet that you make a good dancer. You can see that there are three other docks here, when the new season starts we get pretty busy here and you will need to keep out of the way of more forklifts.”
The next truck that backed in was a bit different as it was full of racks with brown paper garment bags shielding whatever garments hung on them. Brucey quickly showed Bree where they needed to go in the warehouse and that a similar system worked with coloured tags. The unloading was easier as there was no lifting, just pushing the racks. When they emptied the truck there was a big stack of empty racks to go back into the truck and Brucey did much of that with the fork-lift moving a dozen a time.
The foreman and driver co-signed the paperwork and the truck pulled out. Brucey said that it was time for morning tea which made Bree very happy as he needed to go to the toilet. The toilets were next to the change room and the canteen was next to that so it all seemed well laid out. The teams sat together and Bree sat with Brucey, Geoff and Bill at a table. Bree was told that he had done very well and had fitted in with the system immediately. He asked what they were unloading and was told that SupplyMode was a central storage and distributer of womens fashion and beauty goods. The racks were dresses, skirts and suits while the boxes contained everything else a woman would need, from cosmetics to accessories to underwear to hygiene product and shoes. His town was central to every other town in the midlands and the other side of the building was where trucks were loaded to deliver directly to large stores and smaller boutiques in a hundred mile radius.
The rest of the day continued at the same pace and Bree was happy to sit down again for lunch and, when it got to be time to finish, Mr Jackson was waiting by the time-clock and told him that he had been very good for his first day and that he needed to be in and changed before clock-on at seven-thirty. In the change-room he was sad to be taking off his orange shirt and cap as he had felt somewhat happier with them on. He had noticed what was going on around him and had been able to chat with the other men and the drivers. This sociability was all alien to him, and would take a bit of getting used to. That night he even dreamt with orange flashes in them and woke up feeling refreshed and ready to go to work.
Marianne G 2021
Bruce Finds His Rainbow. Part 2
On the Tuesday Bruce was easily on time and Bree was clocked in before 7.30. With Brucey, Geoff and Bill he again went to the unloading dock where he was surprised at the empty spaces where they had filled up with yesterdays’ unloading.
He asked Brucey where all the boxes and racks had gone and Brucey told him that there was a late shift that started at 4.30pm, a half an hour after he had gone home. This shift moved the unloaded goods that were sorted by colour tags and took them to the bigger racks where they were stored by colour tag and also by stock number. This allowed the next section to only have to look for the items they wanted. As there were no trucks in the bay yet Brucey asked the foreman if he could take Bree on a quick tour. The foreman nodded and made sure that Brucey had his pager with him if they were needed.
Brucey pointed out how the colour codes were broken down into smaller groups by number and then into smaller groups again. He told Bree that the second shift was very good at putting everything in the right place and worked until they finished the job, maybe into the early hours. They then came to an open area where there were both men and women working. The men had the orange hi-vis and the women were in bright yellow. “That’s so the men don’t cuss with the women around” Brucey explained.
This section sorted orders for the various stores. At one end it concentrated on big chain-stores and everything was pulled from the racks by box and piled into stacks to be put into the trucks for delivery. At the other end it concentrated on smaller stores or multiple store deliveries. Bree could see that there were open boxes and half-full racks here as the girls packed cartons with the smaller quantities needed. There was a complete crew of men doing the truck loading. Brucey said that Bree would be putting time in all of the sections inside six months as the company wanted all the better employees to be able to fit in anywhere.
Just then the pager beeped and they went back to the unloading dock where they spent the day as before. This time Bree was able to take note of the numbers on the boxes as well as the colour tags and tried to put similar numbers together. He was tired but happy when it was time to go home. Wednesday the foreman tapped him on the shoulder and said that the afternoon shift had left a note to thank him for his diligence in stacking and told him that he had latched on to it quicker than any other employee. When they finished on Wednesday there was a big hamper by the change-room door and Bree was told to put his shirt and pants in it as all the work clothes were sent to a laundry. When he looked he saw that his pants also had Bree embroidered on the back pocket.
The week passed quickly and Bruce had a pleasant Saturday by taking himself to the pictures. He was amazed that he noticed colour more while he was in the town centre. The movie was more vivid than ever but also noticed the girls with brighter coats and dresses for the first time. It made him wonder if he had been colour blind and was now getting better. The following week was much the same as the week before except Thursday morning when he put his freshly laundered shirt on. The washing had taken much of the newness out of it and he was surprised by how much softer it was. Even his pants felt better when he pulled them on.
At the end of his third week Mr Jackson asked to speak to him in the office as he clocked off. He was a little afraid as he was enjoying the work and the social connection with his unloading crew. Mr Jackson immediately put his mind at rest when he told Bruce how everyone was happy with him and that it was time he took things further. He asked Bruce if he would like to learn how to drive a forklift and, when Bruce said he would, it was arranged for Bruce to attend a training school in the town on the Thursday and Friday of the next week, followed by Monday and Tuesday of the week after. When he passed his test he would be driving a forklift at times the rest of that week. Mr Jackson then asked him if he would like to spend some time on the late shift after that as much of that work was done with a forklift. He said yes immediately and was happier when he was told that the later work attracted an extra loading on his pay.
He found the first three days of the next week went very slowly but eventually the Wednesday afternoon came around and he took his work clothes home with him. Thursday morning his mother was amazed to see her son resplendent in his orange dayglow shirt and wearing an orange cap with his hair bunched into a small pony tail popping out of the hole where the adjustment was. He had to explain why he had Bree embroidered on the shirt and on the back pocket of the pants and he left her sitting at the kitchen table having a reviving cup of tea.
He could cycle to the training centre and was able to take his bike into a secure area before checking in with the receptionist. Everyone around him today was wearing hi-vis, some with reflective stripes. All of Thursday morning was taken up with class work – from how the electric forklifts worked and how to maintain them, to the rules of operation. In the afternoon he was put on one for the first time. He had not told anyone that he had never driven before and had been afraid that he would crash into everything in sight. However, he was amazed that he had good skills at driving the things around but needed to spend a lot of time gauging the clearances when he was putting boxes into training racks; especially as the height went up. The trainer told him that he was doing well and everyone had the same problem at first.
One of his distractions that afternoon was the brightness of all the surroundings. Training areas are always very brightly painted so that it impossible to miss obstacles and the colours were almost too much for him to take in at once. The Friday was better for him as he got used to it. That day he practised working in tight places and trying to turn the forklift ninety degrees from an approach to a loading position with less and less room to turn. This was done by having a room divider screen that was moved closer to the rack with every try. He was sweating freely by days end and put his shirt into the washer as soon as he got home.
On Saturday morning a neighbour popped in to ask why they had an orange shirt hanging on the line and, after his mother had given her a cup of tea and told her that her son needed it for work, she went away muttering to herself about standards going to the dogs. His mother did comment to him that the shirt was a very good one, probably much dearer to buy than anything she would look for. Bruce was now so taken with the feel of his work clothes he thought he would wear them all the time if he could. His old, grey, clothes seemed so much rougher than he remembered.
On the Monday the first part of the day was taken with practise on a flat-bed electric cart, the sort they used for moving smaller boxes around in the warehouse. The afternoon was a side-line on caring for and driving a motor powered forklift which seemed so much more rudimentary than the silent and smooth electric ones. Tuesday was exam time, first a written exam on the care, maintenance and usage of forklifts, followed by various practical tests. At the end of it he was given a certificate of competency to display, as well as a forklift driver licence to put in his wallet. He went home a very happy and was feeling a sense of achievement, something he had never felt before. He was now someone!
On Wednesday he was partnered with Alex, a new employee in his second week and was driving forklift on the third unloading bay. They worked well together with Bree making sure that Alex was out of the way whenever he moved the forklift. During the day he developed a real sense of his surroundings and they had unloaded six trucks before it was time to go home. When he put his work clothes in the hamper that day he was surprised to find Mr Jackson waiting for him again, handing him a new issue of shirts that had reflective stripes on them and Bree in large reflective letters on the back. He explained that these would be used when Bree went onto late shift as they operated under reduced light in the evenings. He told Bruce that he should be wearing these when he started the shift at 4.30pm on Monday. Thursday and Friday went well and all the men he had worked with wished him well for his stint on the late shift the following few weeks.
He had an interesting weekend as he took himself to the cinema in the next town where they were showing a new picture he was looking forward to. He went by bus and was surrounded by people wearing colourful coats, dresses and shirts. The movie was a kaleidoscope of colourful effects and he had to sit afterwards, drinking a cup of tea with his eyes closed, before the flashes behind his eyes faded and he could find his way home again. Before he got on the bus he had a walk in the shopping area, taking note of the clothes. He found himself in a mens shop, buying a muted red shirt in a good material, knowing his mother would consider him a sissy if he wore it.
Monday morning he woke up at the normal time and suddenly realised that he had all day to himself as he didn’t start until 4.30, but that he had to pace himself as he may not be back to his bed until the early hours, something he had not experienced in his sheltered life.
Marianne G 2021
Bruce Finds His Rainbow. Part 3
That day Bruce found out something that all afternoon shift workers know – there is nothing to watch on daytime television. He realised that he would need to fill his day with some productive activities or else go mad.
After breakfast he decided he would tidy up his room. When he got to his wardrobe he found that there were a couple of pairs of jeans that were still good but a size too small. He changed the direction of his life that day when he decided that rather than throwing them out, he would use his time in the daylight to exercise and slim into them. After lunch with his mother he rode into town to the cycle shop where he bought a lighting kit for his bike as well as a night jacket with reflective bars on the back and front. He also got good gloves as he was sure that it would get cold riding home.
At four he put together a bag with his work clothes and cycled into work. That evening he was put on an electric flatbed truck and had to transfer the smaller boxes into the racks. He was shown how the racks had four shelves for each category and that he was to add new boxes on shelves going up until he had filled the top one. By that time there should be room on the lowest to start again. This ensured that the turn-over did not leave any old stock. He was fascinated as it got really dark outside as the warehouse was lit with bright safety lights and he could see all the other workers by the reflective shirts and flashing lights on the vehicles. It was a magical scene for him and he loved the intimate atmosphere it created.
It took him a while to latch on to the numbering system but the racks were sequential and this made it easier. The guys called him for breaks and he met Jack, Tom, Peter, George and Alf, his co-workers. Later in the shift, after they had cleared the incoming goods and stacked it all away, they went to a shelf where there were a half a dozen clipboards, one each. He was told that these were for the next day so that the trucks can be loaded from the first minute of the day shift. Because he was driving the flatbed he was given a clipboard with a list of boxes needed and where they should be put.
The delivery area was made up of a number of sections, each dedicated to a truck run. The first three had two marked out areas and he was told that you had A1 and A2, B1 and B2 and C1 and C2. This allowed them to put out the goods for six trucks to be loaded during the day. The day shift would get their own stocks should there be more than the six. The other areas were D, E, F and G and there was a stock area next to each one where he would put the boxes he picked. Once again he was in among the stacks, this time working from the clipboard and picking all of the small boxes for A1. When he had finished the stock for C2 he started on the smaller loads, able to put enough boxes for D and E on the truck together. When he went to unload them he found that there were opened boxes of the products as well as each bay having a bin to put empty boxes. Jack, with a forklift, was taking these out one by one to empty into a big rubbish container.
Thus he saw, for the first time, what the contents of all these boxes were. He saw cartons of hair shampoos and conditioners, nail polish and remover, lipsticks, foundations, eye liner, mascara, moisturisers and other things he had no idea about. Inside the boxes he had moved around for weeks now was a whole rainbow of coloured cartons. He also saw that the girls in these bays had already laid out the next day deliveries. He finished his clipboard a half an hour early so Tom told him to get a forklift and help Peter, who was a bit behind. Peter gave Bree the last page of his clipboard list to look for and, between them, they finished everything up. Over the course of the week he fitted in with this crew who were happy to work almost silently but was chatty enough when they had spare time. He also was given the task of wheeling the needed racks into place when they finished the heavy work early. With the small bays he saw that the contents of the racks were put into long cardboard boxes for delivery so they fitted into the smaller vans easily.
He was still waking up at nine in the morning so had time for breakfast with his mother before getting his riding gear and cycling, first just into the town, and then by longer ways. On Tuesday morning of the third week he was sitting in a small café in the town centre when a lady, who was buying a take-away coffee, came up to him and said “Excuse me, but I see that is a SupplyMode cap you are wearing, do you work there?” He told her he did and she sat down at his table and carried on “I hope you don’t think I am being forward but I am in a bit of a pickle. You see, I own that shop across the road and I am supplied by your employer. They deliver to me on Tuesday and Thursday but I find it terribly difficult to unpack the latest shipment as well as looking after customers. Would you be a doll and help me out, I will pay you in kind.”
He told her that he was currently working the afternoon shift but would be happy to help her while he could. She told him that she was the Joy of Joys’ Fashion Boutique and said that she thought that Bree was a lovely name, having read it off his cap. He had finished his drink so she picked up her coffee and they went over the road. She took him through to the rear of the shop where the stock was unloaded and asked him if he could firstly unload the smaller boxes of cosmetics and put them out on shelves in the shop where he would see others.
This appealed to his dislike of chaos and he set to with vigour. For the rest of the morning he reduced the stock out back and filled the shelves up front, making sure that everything was tidy and in proper lines on the shelves. They then stopped for lunch, Joy going over to the café and bringing back drinks and sandwiches. He was then told to take the contents of the long boxes out, strip off the brown paper and hang the clothes on racks in the storeroom first. This became the watershed moment of his day when he picked the first item out, stripped off the brown paper to reveal a beautiful emerald green dress. As he took it over to the rack he felt the material and wondered at the softness of it. More dresses and skirts followed from that box, which he then put out in the bin with the smaller boxes. The last box held blouses and tops and all were bright colours and patterns. Everything was like nothing he had ever seen his mother wear. He rolled the racks into the shop area so that Joy could set them out as she wanted.
He said he had to get home to get ready for work and she showed him a notebook she had started with the name ‘Bree’ on the front. She said that he would get three pounds an hour as credit towards purchases in future and asked him to be there on Thursday. He went and got his bike and rode home, thinking “Why would I be buying anything from her, I’m not a girl.”
That day, when he got to work, Mr Jackson came out of his office and asked him if he would be happy to continue with this shift as the whole crew were happy with the way he pitched in and made things easier for everyone. He readily agreed as he was finding that having all day to do things appealed to him and when he got home after a full days work, he slept like a baby. That night he had a dream where an emerald green dress floated in front of him, calling out “Bree, Bree, I’m yours.” On that Thursday he told Joy that he would be able to help out for the foreseeable future and she gave him a hug and said she was happy about that.
A couple of weeks later he called in to start work with Joy at ten and was told that the delivery had not arrived yet. He made a cup of tea and tidied around the storeroom when there was a toot from outside. He put up the roller door and one of the firms vans was outside with a couple of girls wearing pink SupplyMode coveralls standing by it. Joy told them that she had customers out front and that Bree would help them unload. He helped the girls unload the van and checked the delivery docket against the shipment. Before they left one of the girls asked if he was the Bree that was working in the warehouse in the evenings and, when he said he was, they said that the girls in the loading section were very happy with the neat way he laid out their boxes, unlike some who would just drop them willy-nilly.
The following Monday when he got to the point of picking up the clipboard to get the supplies to the bays he found a note clipped to his sheet. It told him that the girls from sections D to G had put together a carton of damaged goods together for him and said it would be in the Bay G area. When he went home that night there was a box balancing on his crossbar and he had left the note on the Bay G bench with ‘Thank you, Bree’ written on it. He left the box in the kitchen when he went to bed.
When he got up for breakfast he found that his mother had opened the box and had placed all of the contents on the table. There was shampoo and conditioner with torn labels, dented cans of hair spray, nail polish with chips on the caps and other similar items. His mother had a note in her hand which she showed him. It read “Thank you, Bree, for the work you do. From the girls of D2G.” He had to explain that these were all damaged in transit and written off by insurance so the girls that did the van loading were allowed to take things home. He said that she could use what she could and she immediately told him to take the good shampoo and conditioner to his room and to take his old stuff to his fathers’ space in the bathroom. She put all the items she couldn’t use back into the carton and said he should hang on to it in his room or else his father might get the wrong idea.
This comment highlighted something that was slowly happening while he worked the late shift. He now only saw his father on weekends and was spending a lot more quality time with his mother. They were now much more accepting of each other and chatted like old friends now. His time with Joy was bringing him closer to knowing what girls thought and liked to wear and he had started to buy himself more colourful shirts. Of course, the first time his mother had seen him in his original red one she nearly fainted but was coming around to seeing her grey boy growing into a brighter man. She was also seeing him lose weight with all of his work and cycling and he had already been able to get into those smaller jeans. This created its own problem of what to do with the stuff that was now too big!
Marianne G 2021
Bruce Finds His Rainbow. Part 4
As the year wore on he continued his work with Joy and at the warehouse. Every few weeks the girls would leave him a small box of goodies from the damaged goods bin. He was using the good shampoo and the moisturiser and was looking good, or so he thought.
His hair, which he had not had cut for some time, now reached his shoulder blades and he was taking extra care when shaving, something he did once a week whether he needed to or not. He was wearing a lot of his new clothes and was looking brighter as time went by. One day after he had unpacked the stock at Joys’ shop she gave him a bag of clothes and told him that it was time he stopped this tomboy imitation and to make sure he was wearing them the next time he came in as she wanted him to meet someone.
The next time he went into town to work for her he was wearing a rainbow coloured top, obviously a womans one, as well as a pair of red skinny jeans. They didn’t look out of place with his new, red, sneakers but he made sure he covered the top with a jumper and his bike jacket. He felt a bit stupid but was sure that Joy would not do anything that would make him a laughing stock as he now trusted her. When he arrived at the shop he parked his bike and locked it to a lamp-post and walked in. Joy waited until he had taken off his jacket before telling him that the thermostat was at a level that was comfortable so he had better rid himself of the jumper. He was a little unsure but did as she said, standing there waiting for the peals of laughter. She just told him to take off the rubber band that held his hair in a pony-tail and as he did he naturally shook his head to loosen his hair.
Joy smiled and said “You are exactly as I thought you would be. It is amazing that you have been hiding yourself the way you have. When I first saw you I thought you were a girl but something has nagged at me about you maybe being a boy. I can now see that you really are a girl.” As she said this she made Bree look into one of the big mirrors in the shop and Bree gasped as she saw herself there. The slimming had lost a lot of her waist and the skinny jeans and tight top accentuated her figure. The only thing missing was breasts. When she looked at her face she wondered how she got away with being a boy for so long as she lost the puffiness and had developed a more angular shape that was framed by her full head of hair.
Just then the doorbell dinged and a lady walked in with a make-up case in her hand. Joy went to her and they hugged and air-kissed. Joy then said “Miriam, I want you to meet my wonderful helper, Bree. She is the one that I thought would fit your needs and made sure she wore the right clothes for you today.” Miriam came over to Bree and gave her a hug, then stepping back and inspecting her face. “As usual, Joy, you are right again” she said “She is perfect for my next Spring advertising campaign, so untouched and the ideal next-door girl.” Holding Bree by the arm, she said “Bree, I run a shop around the corner called ‘Make-up With Miriam’ and I want you to be my model in the upcoming Spring advertising campaign. I will make you up and have a professional photographer take the pictures and they will be blown up for the window as well as being in the advertising in the newspaper. What do you say about that?”
Bree was at a loss for words and just smiled weakly, wondering what on earth he had done to reach this point. He knew that if he insisted that he was a boy he would upset these two ladies and it would be the end of his enjoyable times working with Joy. He felt so free sorting out the stock and she had been willing for him to talk to customers lately. This was something else altogether different, now he was expected to be Bree in the open, out there. If the guys in the warehouse got wind of it they would make his life a misery but, he suddenly realised, he wanted to do this. He wanted to see himself in vivid colour every time he went down this street. He wanted to BE the rainbow.
It was if his recent dreams were coming true. For weeks now he had been dreaming in colour with tops, skirts and dresses al talking to him and telling him that they were his. He always woke up with a smile on his face and a need to be smooth and look good. He looked at Miriam and said “Yes, please, I would like to be your model as long as it doesn’t mess with my time here with Joy or my job.” Miriam said that she was sure that it would not take much time at all and that she would get a good idea of what she needed for the shoot if she could do a test make-over today.
The two of them went into the storeroom and he was sat under a bright light while Miriam did her magic. When she had finished they went back into the shop and when Bree looked into the mirror he thought that there was a true girl standing in the way but, as he moved, he realised that the girl was him and that he was truly now a she. Just at that moment the door opened and his mother walked in, came over to him and pulled him to her in a hug, saying “You are truly beautiful, Bree. It has been coming on for a while and I can now see that you have crossed the line into being my daughter. I love you, my Bree, and don’t you forget it. You can now use all of those cosmetics the girls at work have been giving you. They knew way back that you were no boy. You were too caring and meticulous for that.”
Bree couldn’t help herself and started crying, whether out of joy for finding where the rainbow lies or from sorrow for the way the future might lay; she just didn’t know. She did know, however, that today she was a girl and her mother supported her fully and that was a huge plus. “What about Daddy?” she asked. Her mother snorted, saying “He had better toe the line or he will be finding himself sleeping in the garden shed!” This made Bree laugh as the only shed in the garden was the old outside toilet from the last century. “At least I would not have to listen to his piddle into the bowl in the middle of the night if he’s out there” and they all broke into a fit of giggles.
Just then they heard a toot from the back of the shop and Bree just went and pushed the button for the roller door before realising that she was now exposing herself to the world. The two girls from work smiled when they saw her and both rushed to give her a group hug. “Oh Bree” said one “we all knew you would be good looking but wow, you’re gorgeous.” They unloaded the van as usual and the girls both gave her another hug before driving off. Bree was left contemplating what had just occurred. She had interacted with two girls who had seen her as Bree the boy and who now saw her as a definite girl like themselves. She came back to the front of the shop with an odd smile on her face.
Her mother was chatting to Joy and looking through the racks, Miriam had gone. Her mother said “Joy has just told me how much you have helped her, I didn’t realise that you had been working here so long. She has also told me how much you have racked up in credit and you can now afford to get several outfits without laying out a penny. How good is that?” Bree said that she had never considered that she would be buying anything before and that she would unpack todays’ delivery. Her mother came through to the back of the shop while she was unpacking the boxes; luckily it wasn’t a big delivery. While her mother watched she took the new dresses out of the box, stripped off the brown paper and hung them on racks. When she had finished her mother went to the racks and picked out two dresses, one an emerald green and the other cobalt blue. “Try these on, for me, please” she said, softly.
Bree went and hugged her mother, saying “Mum, I am not ready for that yet; it is just too far for me. Besides, I’ve still got hairy legs.” They went back into the shop and his mother asked Joy to put a reserved ticket on the two dresses for when Bree was ready for them. His work was done so he went to Joy and did something he had never done before; he hugged her and air kissed. He then put his jumper and coat on before he and his mother went over the road to the café to get a bite to eat. Sitting at a window table with their toasties and tea, Bree asked his mother how it was that she knew when to be at the shop this morning. “Oh” she answered “ Miriam and I were at school together and when I was in her shop the other day she told me that she would be here today to look at Joys’ helper in regard to her Spring campaign. I put two and two together and they added up to my daughter.”
Bree was quiet and then asked “Mum, I really want to know if I am different and if I can do all of this. I love the colours and the new feeling I have of being someone. I always faded into the background before but the lure of my orange shirt started something I don’t think I can stop. Will you help me, please?” His mother said that she would organise a visit to their GP to have tests made and would make sure her husband was not going to be a problem. Then they went to a nearby chemist and they bought some make-up remover and a better hairbrush for Bree. While his mother went off to do a bit more shopping, Bree got his bike and rode home with his hair flying and a big smile on his face.
When he got home he made sure he removed all sign of make-up and then had a wash before putting on his going-to-work jeans and shirt. He made his sandwiches for his tea at 8.30pm and cycled into work, wondering what fate awaited him. When he got clocked on there was a note on his locker to go and see Mr Jackson. Dread washed over him and he wondered if he was now going to be jobless. When he got to the office he saw Tom, the shift foreman, waiting as well. When Mr Jackson opened the door and asked them in, he sat them at chairs in front of his desk and said “I have asked the two of you in today to see how you are going, Bree. Tom, how is Bree working with your shift?”
Tom smiled and said “I can’t fault her, Mr Jackson. She works as hard as any bloke we have had and is meticulous in her placing of the boxes, especially for bay D to G. The girls there love her to bits, as do my shift. The only question I have is why she was issued with an orange shirt and not a yellow one and why she has to endure having to change in the mens locker room.” Bree was amazed; they had thought he was a girl the whole time! No wonder the language had been gentler than a usual all-male group.
Mr Jackson then turned to Bree and asked “Bree would you be upset if I shift you to the womens’ locker room and issued you with fresh kit?” Bree shook his head and said that the women would have cleared the room by the time he arrived so it wouldn’t matter and, yes, he would like new kit as the size L outfits he had were now too big and he would need a size M. “Good” said Mr Jackson, “we will arrange all that for Monday at the start of the shift. Come and see me first and I will give you a new key. Take your entire old stuff home with you when you leave Friday night.”
Marianne G 2021
Bruce Finds His Rainbow. Part 5
That nights’ work seemed like a dream for Bree. All he could think of was that the rest of the guys had been thinking he was a girl the whole time he had been working with them. That explained why they were so kind to him, and even why he had caught Peter looking at him at odd times.
Saturday morning his mother told him that this was to be the first day of the rest of his life and to put on the rainbow top with the red jeans again as he had an appointment at the salon she always went to. They took the bus into town and when they walked into the salon they were greeted by one of the ladies and taken to two chairs side by side. “What happens now, Mum?” he asked quietly. She looked him straight in the eyes and said “You, my girl, are going to become Bree this morning and then we are going to see a Suzie from Suzies’ Secrets to get you some proper underwear. Then, if we have some time, we will see Joy and take a chunk out of that credit you have built up. Now sit back and let the magic begin.”
So, for the next two hours, Bruce melded into Bree in more ways than one. When they allowed her to stand and look at herself in the mirror she could see nothing of the old, grey, average, Bruce of the time before the orange shirt. What looked back at her was a tallish girl with flowing auburn hair and gorgeous eyes and ruby red lips. When she put her hand up to push a curl away from her eye she saw that she now had shaped fingernails that matched her lips and there were studs in her ears. The girls in the salon all gave her a hug and told her she was going to be a real guy-magnet in future.
At Suzies’ Secrets she had flutters of fright when walking in with her mother but was immediately given a cup of tea while being shown various items of womens underwear that she had never seen before outside the magazines that were scattered in the change room at work. Her mother took charge and chose some panties and a bra in her size, just plain white with centre bows. In the booth she had a bit of a problem with the bra but worked it out in the end. Her mother asked if she was all right and, when she said she was, the curtain was pulled back and her mother gave her a couple of silicon items to put into the bra cups. “These are the smallest they do” she said “we don’t want you walking around with a sudden pair of big breasts.” They bought some white, black and red bra and panty sets as well as matching garter belts and a range of stockings. Then they added full and half- slips, camisoles and six nighties with a couple of dressing gowns. Bree paid for it all with a cheque, realising that she had hardly spent any of her wages on herself before.
When they left that shop Bree was far more confident in her ability to present as a girl, even though it had never been consciously on her radar before. The thought of now being able to try on that cobalt blue dress was almost intoxicating and, when she did just that, she looked at herself in the mirror and wondered what Peter would think if he saw her now. She did only buy the blue dress but did stock up with a few pairs of skinny jeans in red, green, blue and orange, as well as a number of blouses and tops. They also added a fleecy winter jacket and a couple of denim skirts. There was just one more place to go and that was a shoe shop.
With yet another couple of bags with some boots and a pair of blue heels to match the dress, they took the bus home again to put much of her old clothes in bags and hang her new wardrobe. Her mother went through the boxes of goodies that the girls had given her and found that there was enough among it that she would not need to buy cosmetics or hair shampoo for a while. It was then that they realised that they had forgotten handbags and jewellery so they had lunch and went out again to rectify the error, Bree now in some new jeans and bright pink top with her new boots. She looked at herself in the mirror before leaving and wondered what the future held.
Monday morning she was woken by her mother who said that she should wear one of her new tops with a long denim skirt and to put her boots on as they had an appointment with her doctor later in the morning. With her mother she went into town again on the bus, thinking that the old bike would be awkward now and that she had better think of some other form of transport. At the doctors her mother remained seated when she was called in as Bruce Grayson. Her doctor had a double take when she walked into his surgery and sat down. “I think I can see why you are here” he said “go behind that screen, strip off everything and put on the gown you will find. I will arrange for a full set of tests to see where we are with you.”
After he had weighed and measured her he listened to her lungs, poked and prodded places where no-one had poked or prodded before and then told her to get dressed again. All the while he was asking questions and was told how it all started with an orange shirt, too many Bruce’s and that things just kept on happening. Bree admitted that she had never before considered being a girl but that everyone she met seemed to make the assumption she was, even if a bit of a tomboy. She took her forklift licence out of her wallet and showed him where they had approved Miss Bree Grayson to drive and look after forklifts. “I spent four days there in hi-vis and workpants” she said “and they still thought I was a girl.”
Eventually the doctor had finished writing on her record, added squiggles to the blood and urine samples and then called the receptionist to call Mrs Grayson to come in. When her mother had sat down he said “Now, I have examined young Bree as much as I could today and will recommend some other scans for later, but, I have to say that she would have never grown up to be a full-blooded man. The testes are almost non-existent and the penis is about the size one would find on a five-year old, not someone approaching twenty. Her body mass is similar to a pre-pubescent teenage girl and I fully expect the blood tests to come back with a minimal testosterone reading. I can only guess on the estrogen rating but it I can be certain that it will be abnormally high for a teenage boy. We can wait until we know for sure but I will give you a prescription today for testosterone blockers and a mild hormone supplement that will help in the female appearance until we can do more serious work. Once that occurs I would be happy to sign off on allowing you to change your name and sex on the birth records because I know that the best thing for her is to become a fully functioning female if she wants to lead a normal life.” He gave them the prescriptions and they thanked him before leaving the surgery.
She was quiet on the bus home and held her mums hand all the way. Sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of tea she finally broke down into tears while her mother held her. When she had cried herself out she said “Sorry about that, Mum, but it just became too much for me to take in. I am better now and I must face up to the fact that I am Bree and I will be the best daughter you have.” She then went up to her room to get ready for work. She wore the rainbow top again with the red jeans and sneakers; put her work boots in a back-pack along with her sandwich. Pulling on her usual jumper and riding jacket she thought that both will need updating to something more girly soon.
At work she went to see Mr Jackson and he gave her a new key. The receptionist showed her to the ladies change-room where, to her amazement, most of the girls were still putting on their going home clothes. The room smelt of soap and perfume and she realised that the girls just didn’t rush home in their normal clothes without having a shower. She was warmly greeted with hugs and shown her locker. The problem now was that she was in a room full of half-dressed women and had to strip off to change herself. She closed her eyes and just got on with it, stripping down to her new pants and bra then putting on the new yellow kit that was in the locker. The pants fitted much better, as did the yellow shirt with the reflective bars and Bree embroidered across the back in bright pink.
She clocked on and went to do her work for the evening. She found the guys were even more accepting of her than before and the evening went well. She noticed Peter was looking at her every chance he got and she giggled to herself that he thought her worth looking at. When she clocked off that night she made sure that she took a shower herself before getting dressed and said goodnight to the security guard as she was the last to leave. Tuesday morning she put on another new top, short denim skirt with leggings and boots and decided that whatever else she was going to do today, she would be coming home in a new jumper.
The week passed with everything going well, the work was good, the girls gave her another box of oddments and Peter spent so much time looking at her he was told off by Tom. The work-load was picking up as they got closer to Christmas with all of the unloading bays open now. Her shift worked into overtime on a few nights but it was good to be busy. On Friday she got a message to make an appointment with the doctor again for Monday. That Friday evening, when she clocked on, she noticed a poster next to the time clock advertising the work Christmas party at a large pub in the next town. She realised that as there was around fifty working in the warehouse, plus office staff and partners, it would be quite a big do if everyone went. They would earn the party as they would be working right up to the weekend before Christmas. There was also a note on her time-card telling her that Saturday work would start the following weekend.
That Friday evening Peter plucked up the courage and asked her to go with him to the works party and she thought for a moment before saying yes.
Marianne G 2021
Bruce Finds His Rainbow. Part 6
For much of the weekend she wondered why she agreed to go to the party with Peter. She was far too new to girldom to think about boys but then realised that she had never really thought about girls in the way other boys did.
On the Saturday morning she went into town and found a shop that sold motorcycles. Looking around she saw that most would need her to wear jeans the whole time she rode but then she saw some second-hand scooters which would allow her to ride in a skirt. There were a couple of Vespa scooters which she had seen in a movie not long ago but there was also a couple of Lambrettas which had a longer seat that would allow her to strap on a bag at the back. One stood out as it had been professionally painted bright yellow. She heard it run, negotiated with the salesman, and put a deposit on it. They told her how she could go for a learners permit and he put a sold tag on the mirror.
On Monday Bree went, with her mother, to the doctor again and the doctor told them that the tests had shown that Bree was, indeed, predominantly female. The testosterone was, as expected, abnormally low. Otherwise, she was in good health but the doctor did say that he was worried about the male genitals and that he had organised some X-Rays. She was booked in at the local hospital on Wednesday morning. That week, at work, it was a bit strange as Peter, normally quiet and shy, sat next to her at the meal breaks and chatted about all sort of things, getting ribbed by the other men and bringing a blush to her cheeks.
The womens changing room was abuzz with the upcoming Christmas party. Bree discovered that it was a classy event, with a sit-down meal followed by dancing. She did not like the sound of the dancing but she could always refuse. It also required the girls to dress up and the guys to wear suits.
On the Wednesday she went to the hospital and they took lots of pictures of her groin area.
On Saturday they worked midday to five, after the day shift had worked seven to midday. All incoming bays were now in use and the amount of stock moving through was staggering. Even Joy was turning over more, making Bree need to be as early as possible and work as long as it took. The doctor contacted her the following week and when she went to see him she was told that she needed to have an operation to remove her testes as they showed signs of being totally dead and prone to creating cancerous cells. This would be set down for the first week of the New Year.
For several weeks she hardly had any time for her exercise but did find time to get her learners licence to ride a motorcycle. She was earning good money at the moment and organised to pick up the scooter on a week day. She took the bus and when she went into the showroom her yellow Lambretta was sitting there with a new disc and learners stickers on it. She paid the remaining money by cheque and a mechanic showed her all the controls and the knack of twisting the handchange while pulling in the clutch. With it on the stand she tried it a few times and only nearly over-revved once. The final payment had included a proper long coat, gloves and a helmet so she was sent on her way into the maelstrom of midday traffic as a raw rookie. Somehow she made it home.
She rode it to work that day and it was far more comfortable than cycling. Coming home was a joy as it took a good fifteen minutes off her travel time. She had to park it outside the house but made use of her strong bike chain and lock, the cycle now consigned to the back garden for a while.
The work now became much busier as the moved towards Christmas. The Saturday shift they just pulled goods from the shelves as there were no deliveries since they had cleared the incoming goods. When the day of the party arrived Bree had to head home to change immediately. Peter had a Cortina and he would be picking her up at 6.30pm so she didn’t have a lot of time. She had sorted out all of her outfit and laid it on her bed in the morning and had showered and washed her hair before going to work so it was just a freshen up before getting dressed, her mother helping her with her make-up and getting her hair nice. At 6.30 they saw Peter pull up outside and he came to the front door and knocked. Bree was in the kitchen having second thoughts but her mother told her to just go with the flow and enjoy herself.
When she opened the door she saw Peter look at her, his face going from a smile to a broad grin. “Wow” he said “you are just beautiful, Bree, I am the luckiest man at the party tonight.” She told him not be silly and put her hand on his arm. He then took a step closer to her and kissed her lightly, saying “Come on Bree, let’s go and brighten up some more peoples day.” He opened the passenger door of the car for her and she made sure she got in with as much decorum as her mother had told her. Peter went and got into the driving seat and they were off to the party.
Peter kept up some light chatter while they drove and Bree was feeling much more settled when they arrived. He parked the car and came around to the passenger side to help her out. When she stood up they were very close together and Bree did something so extraordinary she would think about it for days. She put her hand up to his head and pulled him towards her for a kiss which he immediately responded to. They stood there, locked lip to lip, for several seconds and then they moved back from each other, smiling. “I’m sorry about that, Peter, I don’t know what came over me” she said. He laughed and told her she had nothing to be sorry about and that it was the best thing that had happened to him all year.
When they went into the hotel she took her coat off to reveal her cobalt blue dress and Peter, once again, told her she was stunning. When they went into the dining area they were greeted by the other workers and all the girls from the D2G lines told her she put them to shame. When the receptionist greeted her Bree was amazed that she now matched her for looks, something that the morning of her interview would never have crossed her mind. Mr Jackson gave her a kiss on the cheek and said “Bree, you light up the room tonight, I am so glad you could come.” He shook Peters’ hand and told him to look after her as she was very special. Peter told him that he knew that already.
They had a good meal and when the dancing began she was no longer afraid to try, telling Peter she was no good at all they managed quite well, especially the slower numbers when she was held tight to him and put her arms around his neck. She had to stop to consider her options when she felt his manhood pressing against her thigh but she thought that it may all work out for the best. At one point in the evening the band started playing the Madison and she was pulled onto the floor by the other girls and had to follow their lead. As they all got into the movements the band kept it going until everyone was laughing so much they had to stop dancing. When she got back to their table Peter put his arms around her and gave her a big kiss, right there in front of everyone. This was the trigger for all the men to kiss their wives or dates.
Near the end of the night Mr Jackson told them that it had been a good year and that there would be a bonus in their wages next week. He then said that there would be a small crew that would be needed to work between Christmas and New Year as they had a lot of goods coming through for the January sales. There would be a note on the clock-in cards on Monday for those who were required. When Peter and Bree got into his car to go home, she put her head back against the headrest and thought of how wonderful it had been. She was not a grey wallflower anymore but someone who was considered ‘special’ by others. When they got back to her house they kissed for several minutes before she got out, waving to him as he drove away. Her mother was still up and they had a cup of cocoa each and she told her mother about the evening and that she was happy to be who she was, now.
On the Monday there was a note on her clock card that said she was required to work between the holidays and would need to come in on day shift in that week. She went to the office and told them that she would need to have some time off after the New Year as she needed some surgery and they noted the days she would need. That evening the guys were all talking about how good the party had been and how much they enjoyed watching Bree and Peter make out on the dance floor “Almost sizzling” said Tom. Christmas day came around and she stayed at home with her parents, exchanging gifts. Peter had been invited to lunch and he gave her a friendship ring while she gave him a set of cufflinks. Neither gift was as good as the kiss they shared before he left.
There was no late shift that week, they did twelve hour days and Bree spent a lot of time on the forklift, sometimes needing to take boxes straight out of the trucks and delivering them directly to the outgoing bays. It was full on and Mr Jackson put on a buffet with drinks on the last day, saying that they had all done very well. He came over to Bree before they left and asked her if she could type. She said she could but was a bit slow. He said that it was good and would she consider taking over the receptionist seat for a couple of weeks when she came back from her hospital stay as the receptionist would be taking her holidays. She said she was happy to and went home that day to tell her mother.
In the week after the New Year she went into hospital and had her testes removed. The doctor spoke to her before the operation and asked if she wanted to have a more realistic female form down there and she signed the papers that allowed him to do what was necessary. When she woke up again she had bandages and a catheter and was on a drip. The doctor came in and said that everything went well and that she would be told the results of the biopsy before she was allowed to go home. When that day did come around she found that her panties fitted so much better and the doctor told her that she had avoided cancer by a short time as there were bad cells in her testes. Well, she thought, my ex-testes.
Marianne G 2021
Bruce Finds His Rainbow. Part 7
Peter took her home and gave her a kiss before he left for work. Her mother said that she would now have to sit down to pee and was told that the penis had been so small she had been sitting down for years. Before she went back to work she went to see Joy to tell her that she would be working days for a few weeks so couldn’t help.
Joy said that she had expected it and that she had spoken to a niece who would be coming in to help. Bree said she was going to help in reception and left with a bright red pantsuit with a silk violet blouse. Of course she had to go via the shoe store to get red shoes to match.
She went to work for the usual 7.30 start and Mr Jackson showed her where the supply cupboard was and where the tea and coffee making supplies were. When the receptionist came in they sat together and she was shown how the paperwork was treated and where everything was filed. She was introduced to the postman when he brought the big stack of envelopes. She was told to sort through them to divide them into orders, invoices, receipts, cheques and other items with the receptionist checking her work afterwards. She was then shown how to type up the invoices that went out to their customers from the checklists filled in on the delivery line. There was an accountant who checked it all before it was posted and he also took care of payments and the wages. During the day she also took phone calls, talking to suppliers and customers and, by the end of the week, she was deemed good to do everything herself.
Saturday morning she went to see Joy again and bought more outfits to suit the position, a green pantsuit, a blue wool dress and a similar one in orange. She smiled as she tried that on as it reminded her of her first days working. There was a shock for everyone in the middle of her second week when she opened a letter which was signed by the receptionist and told them that she had eloped with her boyfriend and, by the time they read the letter, she would be on the way to Gretna Green to get married and then would be sailing to New Zealand to start a new life together. She showed the letter to Mr Jackson and he told her that he will want to talk to her before she left that day.
At the end of the day she was asked to sit in his office with the accountant and he offered her the job in reception. The accountant told her what her salary would be and that there would be a clothing allowance as well as access to the damaged goods area. She would have her own locker in the little kitchen next to the office and she would not need to clock on in future. On the Friday she went into the womens locker room and cleared her locker, putting her yellow kit in a bag to take home. The girls all congratulated her on her new status and said that it would be good to have someone in the front office that had done their time in the warehouse. They showed her where the damaged goods were stored and she saw that there were a few clothing bags with tears in them. When she looked there were a couple of dresses in her size that would just need some repairing so she clocked out for the last time and took them home, along with her other kit.
That weekend her father told her that her room did not comply with the standard needed for a professional woman and that she needed to go with him to the hardware store and pick a new colour for the walls. Her mother then helped her sort out all of her old Bruce clothing that was still hanging around to put into bags for donation. There was not much Bruce stuff left that went into boxes to go into the attic, just some old toys and his bundle of poetry, which no longer read with any idea that the person who wrote them was now female. She thought about tossing them out but then decided that it could be fun reading them in her old age.
While at the hardware store she had spotted a small pressure washer which would be ideal for cleaning the scooter, especially if there was snow and they salted the road. On the Sunday she put on her old Bruce jeans and jumper and parked the scooter in front to the house to try out the pressure washer. It worked well but when she went to turn the scooter around she noticed that where she had over-sprayed the front wall of the house it looked lighter. When she had cleaned the other side of the scooter she moved it to one side and sprayed a small portion of the front wall which revealed beautiful red bricks. She called to her father and when he looked at it he said “Surely you don’t want to do the whole house?” She said that it would certainly make the place look brighter. Her mother then had a look and said that it would be wonderful to have the whole front of the house as clean as the dirt was probably over a hundred years old from the old coal-fired industrial age.
They discussed it and that week arranged for a ladder to be delivered, along with her buying a bigger pressure cleaner. She asked Peter if he could help on Saturday afternoon and the following weekend saw them do the whole house. Of course, being one in a terrace, this meant that the house now stood out like a beacon. Their neighbour then asked if they could do their house if they paid for it to be done. They settled on fifty pounds and the following weekend saw two houses, side by side, showing the original bricks for the first time in a hundred years or more. In the next week they had got orders from the entire row so this took up several weeks after that with Peter getting half of the payments. When they had finished the local paper came around and took pictures with an article in the centre section that had pictures of their row alongside pictures of neighbouring houses that were still dirty and grey. The day after the paper came out their local council member knocked on the door and asked them what magic they had wrought, to be told that it was just soap and water at a high pressure. A month later there was a council crew, armed with an industrial pressure cleaner and an elevated platform vehicle that was seen slowly travelling around the town, cleaning facades. She easily passed her test riding the scooter and started taking driving lessons and practising with Peters’ Cortina.
Bree was now really settled into her new position and was starting to make suggestions to streamline the paperwork process. It took her by surprise when Miriam contacted her about the photo shoot. Miriam told her that she would be sharing Bree with Joy, who would supply the dresses, and that the photographer would do full body shots as well as close-ups. This took place in early March and, within a few weeks; there were pictures of Bree in stunning make-up in Miriams’ shop window and in the newspaper and also pictures of Bree in the spring fashions in Joys shop window. Her mother managed to get a few and framed them for hanging on her new bedroom walls. The D2G girls also got hold of some and they were put up in the womens locker room and the corridor outside. Bree was quite embarrassed with all the attention.
Her love affair with Peter was now strong and they spent a lot of time together. She was starting to bud small breasts but was unable to have sex so they had a discussion one day that she feared would end it for good. She explained how she had gone from being Bruce to Bree and he said that he knew it all along. He just loved her for the person she was and would have tried being gay if she hadn’t made the semi-transition. They kissed for a long time and, that Saturday night, on the way home from the pictures, they pulled into a lonely lay-by and she took him into her mouth for the first time and proved that she could please him in that way, at least.
As spring turned into summer the whole town started to look clean for a change. The council cleaning crew was slowly working up and down all of the terraced streets making them look good and the shops in the town started to sport new awnings and paint. Her home terrace row now sported new paint on all the front doors and window frames and the trend was slowly working outward from there. Her town won an award for its new look and she went, with Peter, to a party at the Town Hall where she was given a certificate saying she was a respected and important person in the town. The week after that Bree was interviewed for the paper as some sort of agent of change and the clipping soon appeared on the wall at work. After six months in the job she got a raise and Peter was transferred onto the day shift as a trainee foreman. Not long after that he proposed and she accepted.
As the summer meant the workload dropped somewhat they organised a week off and went down to London to visit some sights and see a specialist that her GP had recommended. The specialist said that she could live the rest of her life as she was without any troubles but could have another operation to take her to the next level once she had gone through another six months of living as she was now. She discussed it with Peter and he suggested that they have a long engagement so that they could enjoy their wedding night as a true man and woman. They made another appointment for just after Christmas the following year and went to spend their holiday looking at the tourist spots and also looking at the shops. They heard about an area that was supposed to be the home of small boutiques and ended up in Carnaby Street.
Bree had a flash of inspiration and spoke to as many of the shop owners and designers as she could, taking copious notes and collecting business cards. She also bought a few items from designers she thought would be popular back home. Back in the office she spoke to Mr Jackson and explained that there was a whole new movement in the fashion industry and that she thought that SupplyMode should have a secondary supply chain of cutting edge products that no-one else in the area had thought about. She was tasked with going back and setting up shipments in a small way to test the waters.
It took her region by storm and everything went through the warehouse so quickly it hardly touched the shelves. She was sent back to London to source more as there were good margins for the company. By the end of the year they had hired another receptionist and she was now the chief buyer, going to the existing suppliers in her company car and sorting out new lines and better pricing. The D2G girls were taking book on what she would come up with next but they didn’t factor in her holiday in hospital to finalise her transition.
As the next year rolled on she was sitting in her bedroom with her wardrobe open and it suddenly struck her that she could see her past there.
Firstly there was the red pantsuit that mimicked the one worn by the receptionist on the day of her interview.
Then there was her orange dress that she had bought when she was sitting behind that same desk.
Next was the yellow sundress that she bought to match the yellow scooter.
Then there was the emerald green dress that her mother had wanted her to try on and which looked fantastic on her when she did get to wear it.
This was next to the cobalt blue dress that she wore to the Christmas party and had her first proper kiss with her future husband.
Further along the rail there was an indigo tie-dyed blouse that she loved as soon as she saw it in London and the violet blouse she wore on her first day as trainee receptionist. She had found her rainbow.
There was just one colour that was needed to round out the set and that was white, just like the white dress that was hanging on a hook on her bedroom door and which she would be wearing the next Saturday when her father was going to walk with her down the aisle to marry her Peter and then, when they are man and wife, their promise to themselves would resolve itself and they would then be man and woman.
The end,
Marianne G 2021