The Secret Gift By Teek © 2021 Chapter 5 Returning Home

Summary: Suzy and Jilly return home, but it is a Christmas gift from Cousin Mary that changes things with Mom.

The Secret Gift By Teek © 2021 Chapter 3 Aunt Jessica

Summary: Suzy and Jilly go to spend the night at Aunt Jessica's house. As Suzy adjusts to more people knowing about her, Cousin Mary must get used to the new reality. A side trip back to Grandma's to visit with Mom, reveals Mom's view on the transition.

The Secret Gift By Teek © 2021 Chapter 01 The Gift

Summary: Lewis gets a great collection of gifts for Christmas that any 12-year old boy would love, but until he gets his secret gift, true happiness is unknown.

Chapter Two – Buyer Will Want to See Dick

Uri and Katya prepare Jennifer Jones to go undercover to expose a people smuggling ring. They need to hear Jennifer's history to help her build a reliable, convincing backstory.

Link: Lost Faith Title Page and Description

CAUTION - cousin incest (non-sexual)
CAUTION - severe emotional pain/open emotional wounds

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Christmas came with all the happiness, love, and family it's supposed to have. Faith had called off the move, but that was to be short lived. As the long winter wore on, Heather decided that, for Erica's own good, she needed to move into the guest room and make it her own. She offered to let the girl chose her own decor, but Erica sadly accepted the room as it was.

Link: Lost Faith Title Page and Description

CAUTION - emotional pain/open emotional wounds

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Sitting in the library, Erica stared out the window as the snow fell all around the house. She knew she needed to get back to her studies, but her mind just wouldn't settle. Her thoughts drifted as freely as the snowflakes that fell past the large window, taking her from one memory of the last few months to the next. Finally shaking her head to make herself focus, she re-read her essay on early New Hampshire history. Reviewing her notes, she finished the closing and set the papers aside, glad that her work was done before Christmas break.

Link: Lost Faith Title Page and Description

CAUTION - emotional pain/open emotional wounds

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Sitting at the vanity in her room, Erica watched the mirror while her aunt finished braiding her hair into two pigtails that came down the side of her head. The costume had been dropped off the day before and fit perfectly. With the shoes, dress, red braided pigtails, and a picnic basket with a small stuffed Cairn Terrier sticking up out of one side, she was the perfect image of Dorothy Gale. Watching her aunt tying off the blue ribbons at the end of her pigtails, she smiled at the reflection, still happy to see her young mother reflected back at her, even through her costume.

Link: Lost Faith Title Page and Description

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Enjoying the ride in her aunt Heather's limousine, Erica was finally much more comfortable in her fantasy. Now fully immersed in being Erica Hargrave, she relished the view out the window, watching the countryside blanketed in snow glide by them. After a while she realized they'd been driving for far longer than the trip back to her aunt's home.

Link: Lost Faith Title Page and Description

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Sitting in the back of her aunt's limousine, Heather across from her and Faith next to her, Erica's nerves were on edge knowing she was going to meet someone who knew her father... and her from her old life before she was reborn in the body of her son. The butterflies were gone, replaced with raging wildcats clamoring around inside her stomach.

Link: Lost Faith Title Page and Description

CAUTION - emotional pain/open emotional wounds

Clarification: The entire first part of this chapter is a traumatic flashback.

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Erica bounded into the living room, gay as a lark. It was just before six o'clock and she knew April would be home from school by now. "Aunt Heather? It's almost six. I know it will be time for dinner soon, but before dinner, can I call my friend April and let her know I'm OK?"

Idol

Idol - 1975 - Age 6
Dakota would rather have a friend than fame

Link: Lost Faith Title Page and Description

CAUTION - emotional pain/open emotional wounds

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Rinsing off the body wash as he remembered the happy exchange that now nearly brought him to tears, Eric's heart ached to see his best friend even though he knew he likely never would again. Draining the tub, he pulled in one of Faith's towels and dried. Stepping out, he pulled the towel around him tightly to ward off the bitter cold seeping in from the outside.

Link: Lost Faith Title Page and Description

CAUTION - emotional pain/open emotional wounds

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Awaking slowly in a dark room, his mind was groggy and dull. The satin pillow and distinctive sweet smell that screamed 'girl' told him he wasn't in his room at the Stone's house. That room still stank of teenage boy from its occupant before he'd taken it. Unable to remember where he was, he had a vague notion of going to sleep in someone else's bed and there being a storm. He reasoned that he must have sneaked into April's bedroom last night like he'd done a few times after his mother's hospitalization when he'd been especially scared. April would soothe away his fears and he would sleep on her floor, returning to his own room in the early morning. That's when he remembered he was in a bed and noticed he wasn't sleeping alone.

Link: The Wisher's Paradox Title Page and Description

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After a brief recess, Judge Fallon returned to his bench. "Be seated." he stated wearily. Looking out over the assembled people, he blew out a breath. "This case has been full of esoteric questions. Has Christina been abused by being made to live as a boy, even though she didn't seem to mind much? Did the plaintiffs ever have custody of their child, even with no birth record? Thusly, can parental rights be reinstated, even though they were never legally severed to begin with?"

Link: The Wisher's Paradox Title Page and Description

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As Christina walked into the courtroom, she was nervous. Living with her grandparents these last five days had been both wonderful and heartbreaking. That first day they'd been loving toward her, but after her grandmother knew the truth of who she was and told Walter, she'd lost all hope of acceptance.

Link: Lost Faith Title Page and Description

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Eric looked out the window of the cab through rivers of raindrops that ran down the side of the roof in little streams. The sun was just reaching the ebb of twilight in the wet October sky as he opened the cab door and stepped out onto the muddy driveway in front of the house that was to be where he would live from now on. He couldn't call it home; that was back in Newport Beach.

Link: The Wisher's Paradox Title Page and Description

CAUTION - Highly Emotional Content (have tissues handy)

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Waiting for word from her parents, Christina sat with Kathy in her room at the Grants'. When Linda suggested she write the letter, she insisted that she not lie, even insisting on taping the Q-tip she swabbed inside her cheek to the paper herself. Leaving to return to the Grant home, she and Kathy spent the time watching videos online. Hearing the phone ring though, she jumped up and practically ran out into the living room.

Link: The Wisher's Paradox Title Page and Description

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An hour later, Christina emerged from the bathroom clean, in new clothes that used to be Kathy's, and with her hair dry and styled nicely. Making her way over to the dining room table, she saw no one there.

Link: The Wisher's Paradox Title Page and Description

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Scared and alone, Christina huddled in the dark of her best friend's bottom drawer, unsure how long she would have to wait there. Praying silently, she tried not to cry.

Link: The Wisher's Paradox Title Page and Description

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Pacing her exam room like a caged animal, Christina had a fist balled up and ready to strike out again at the next person to touch her, even as her other hand held up the loose-fitting pajama bottoms and boxer shorts. Her breath came in rapid intakes through her nostrils and out her mouth.

Ruth and Lucy's ballet rehearsals dominate the week. Thursday evening is their dress rehearsal, and they perform Friday and Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon.

Lucy and Ruth continue to visit Bikini Beach. A photo-shoot takes place Friday morning.