Slave to Beauty
A vignette from some images found
By Maryanne Peters

I was brought up in a beautiful home. My mother called herself “A Slave to Beauty” as if that could explain everything that she did to me – or perhaps excuse it. It was like saying that she had no choice, but surely that was mine.

Belle of Vicksburg
-2-
459 Willard Lane, Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Motherhood
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

How can I begin to describe the shock of being told by the woman that you love that she is not a woman at all, or at least was not born a woman? To be honest, it is not so hard for me now because I have buried it, but I remember that at the time it hit me hard.

The Belle of Vicksburg

In order to write a book, I think the first one must establish the setting. Then one must introduce the main protagonist that drives the plot forward to the reader. Allow me then to first establish the setting for you. Then, please allow me to introduce you to the protagonist of the following story. The setting is Vicksburg, Mississippi. The city itself is one of the principal cities of Mississippi with a population of around fifty thousand. The city is located on the high bluff that overlooks a gentle bend in the Mississippi River.

The Awakening
A Vignette
By Maryanne Peters

She woke to the sound of music. They had rented the “La Villa Musica” for a month just to soak up the Adriatic Coast, and simply because they could afford it. He was not lying beside her in the bedroom with the view. The windows were open, and the curtains moved with the warm sea breeze. The music seemed to be coming from the lounge – from the grand piano.

FRANKIE

I clicked the top back onto the lipstick and replaced it carefully in the dressing table drawer along with the other make up I’d used. Studying myself in the mirror, I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. I felt relaxed - for the first time in a long while. Perhaps for the first time since my sister, two years older than me, had left home to go to college in the US ten weeks ago. I missed her enormously. We were close - much closer than most siblings, but we had our parents to thank for that.

Outed
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Ned’s big mouth is sometimes useful, and sometimes cringeworthy.

For instance, it was he who was able to talk the conductor into shifting us up the train to one of those special cabins when the soccer team in our carriage started to get rowdy. We had chosen the train over a flight because it was city center to city center and we needed cellphone coverage throughout, but it would get us there late, so the contract signing would need to be short.

This story contains crossdressing and sex. If you don't like sex stories, please don't read it.

I had a few sleepless nights after my encounter with Rob. I woke up from a dream where I was in an old TV ad. The Shake and vac woman was dancing in her heels and skirt, hovering up Shake and vac. She had my face. I remember seeing the ad on Youtube. She looked like a typical 1980's housewife. I found her a turn-on. The thing is, I didn't want to have her, I think I wanted to be her.

Summer Assignment
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

A little topical tale to add to the celebration of the big day. I hope you enjoy it whether you are full of enthusiasm for the event or or not in the least interested.

[Monday morning]
“Broadway Electrical Supplies. How can I help you,” said Abby as she answered the phone.

'Elle the Enforcer', my favourite creation is adventurous, confident, a force to be reckoned with, respected, feared, rich, beautiful, and female, Think of the best qualities of all the gaming and movie super-heroines, Supergirl, Batgirl,Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel and Black Widow fromThe Avengers, Sonya and Jade from Mortal Kombat, Cammy from Street Fighters, not forgetting Lara Croft, pick and mix them all up and you end up with Elle. She is the epitome of everything I see myself to be in my dreams, but a million miles away from the reality of my life.

Part 1

In my time at University, I studied Art and Art History, with a little side project looking at literary greats. One of the things I learned by heart was the famous quote from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. It goes like this –

‘The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on.
Nor all your piety and wit, shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all your tears wash out a word of it.’

Uber Love
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

After being laid off from my job I started driving for Uber. I had a good car and it seemed like a way to make money, but to be honest it was more that I enjoyed the company of people and couldn’t stand being stuck at home. Even after I picked up a new job, I kept driving for Uber in the evenings.

Tom, Dick and I, Harry had been best friends since primary school. How we had been teased for our names over the years. We stuck together through middle and high school. We hung out together. Got into trouble together. Somehow Tom always managed to extricate himself and I managed to shield Dick from the worst consequences. In high school we usually triple dated. We also stood together against the bullies. We were unfortunate in that we were considered to be “cute” in a girly way. Unfortunately that also invited some unwanted attention from the gay community. We weren’t. Gay that is.

See You on the Other Side
(Part 6)
By Sabrina G. Langton

***
Author's Note: Welcome to the second to last chapter. This one is my favorite, well, um, one. Lots of love, friendship, and positivity floating around these words, well, until they aren't, ha, and the drama comes in... I hope YOU like it.

***

"That will be, let me check. 22 dollars, times 11 months, plus tax, $263.50."

Girls Just Want to have Fun
-3-
Accessory Shopping and Ear Piercing

I got off the bus swearing at myself in a village in the middle of nowhere where only a few poor sods could understand English. It was in December 1947 and the quicksilver would have shown minus 40 if it had been able to. It had been a very long journey and the worst part had been the last. 4 hours on a rickety bus that didn’t even pretend to be a coach! I had to remind myself why the hell I was there. Sure, the case interested me but the real reason was that Boston wasn’t big enough for both me and the men in black.

Geneva at the front desk was the first to see Kim come in on Take Your Daughter to Work Day and noticed she had some kind of Vase but didn’t say anything except her usual “Good Morning!”

"Morning Geneva, going to be an interesting day with all these girls here today, isn’t it?”

Though the might of his right arm was already legend, it was not by battle prowess that Sigurd held his men steady in the face of a boiling sea of fearsome creatures, of horrors that would freeze the blood of the most bold.

Blind Date
A Vignette
By Maryanne Peters

I would like to be able to say that I had no hand in it, but that would not be true. We all knew what we were doing – it was a joke at Al’s expense. The problem was that we all seemed to have left Al behind. We were all fully developed as men by the time we graduated high school, but Al never seemed to have quite got there. I suppose that we might try to excuse what we did by saying that we teed him up with a blind date that might help him to “man up”, but how would a transwoman be able to do that?