Fiction by Cathy
© 2012 All rights reserved
Chapter Seven
The next morning I was exhausted! I hadn’t slept much, with all the anxiety over what had happened. As we pulled away, I saw a couple of my buddies on the corner and they waved as we drove by. That really got me worrying…I mean, how could I possible pull off being a girl here…with them always hanging out at the corner! How could Dad even stand to look at me? Why couldn’t I have just been born normal? I would have been going to Japan! But…me…becoming a girl? Everyone I knew would know it was me. What a stupid idea! I was going to get killed!
At the airport, I remember carrying one of Dad’s suitcases, following them both to the gate. I vividly remember the long sad goodbye…and only Mom and I returning to the car. I stared out the window for a while as Mother drove from the airport. She was explaining more of the plans they had made. Unfortunately, I hadn’t paid any attention to what she just said. Soon though, we pulled into a driveway of a house close to downtown in So-Ho. When we got out, She opened up the back of the station wagon and handed me a small suitcase. I carried it as we walked up to the front door where we were greeted by an older lady who smiled and asked Mother’s name. She then smiled broadly at me and walked slowly around me.
Mother and she talked a little and then we were shown upstairs to a room with two beds and a bathroom. I was asked to leave the suitcase there and follow them. Back downstairs, we went into a room that sort of looked like the ladies' hair salon I had seen a few times I went with Mother when she was having her hair done. The lady introduced herself to me and asked me to have a seat while she and Mother discussed some things. A few minutes later, they came back and mother smiled at me, gave me a hug and told me to behave and do exactly what I was told. The lady told me to call her Tess. Mother was going to be leaving for the afternoon to do some shopping. She would be back later that afternoon and would spend the night with me here. “We can’t have you showing up at our house and being seen by any of our neighbors or your friends until you’re ready now can we? In several days when my niece showed up…well, that will be fine.” And she smiled as she brushed the top of my head with her hand and left.
Tess then explained what we were about to undertake. My hair was cut in a crew cut style, popular at the time. That, apparently, was about to change drastically. Having only known the behavior of a young boy except the two weeks I was in my ‘test period,' I was going to get an intensive course in behaving more like a girl. “First things first though…it’s going to take a while to stretch your hair out to the length we need it, don’t you think?”
I must have looked immediately panicked because she started to chuckle. “I’m kidding!” she laughed. “But come with me…I think you may find this interesting.” She showed me a science-fiction looking machine. It looked like a microscope with a control panel and some probe-looking things sticking out the front. She then grabbed what looked like hair and held it out for me to take. “Pretty soon, this will be your hair!” I just looked at her, my mouth wide open.
She took one of the hair strands and attached it to one of the probe things. Using the controls, she peered through the microscope and maneuvered the hair under it. “Here…take a look and see what you can see.” I did, and it looked like a hollow tube attached to a long round bar of some kind…sort of... I told her what I saw and she explained the ‘tube’ was actually a connector mounted on a human hair. “That round bar you see? That’s the hair!” The ‘tube’ will be slipped over one of your own hairs and ‘glued’ in place. The glue was a special kind of glue that hardened quickly using an ultraviolet type of light. Later, when my hair was washed, those little tubes would dissolve leaving only the glue joint between the hairs. She said it would last six to nine months. “Of course, in that time your own hair will only grow out about four to seven inches, so it might have to be done again.” She sighed and looked at me as she said, “For that, I’m sorry. This is a long process, so the fact you’ll have to do it more than once is…well, isn't that the price for being pretty?”
Mother was almost as fascinated as I was about the whole process. When the tour was done however, she had to leave and reminded me to be a good girl and do what I was asked to do.
That afternoon, I sat as quietly as I could while Tess painstakingly attached hair after hair. I guess I felt very self-conscious! I mean, Mother had told me in front of this nice lady to be a ‘good girl’ and She surely knew I was a boy! As she was working, she explained that actually it was very quick with my short hair because she could easily maneuver a single probe instead of having to maneuver two, which would be the case when my hair was longer. It made sense, but still seemed it would take forever. By the end of the day, the process was only less than half done.
You have to understand, in 1956 this was an unheard of process. I didn’t know better of course. During that period of time, there were all kinds of ‘miracle’ technologies that were at once fascinating, and absolutely unbelievable. So, the thought that this was something special didn’t occur to me! Looking back now, I haven’t ever heard of it again so it must have been some experiment that didn’t make it into commercial use, I guess.
She and I talked a lot. She must have been quite a lady to undertake such a process with someone as young and impatient as a nine year old, and especially a nine year old boy! But I was fascinated with the machine and what she was doing and she was most pleased to discuss it with me. It turned out, she actually helped make the machine and worked with a company somewhere overseas to get the hair strands made for her. She told me all about how she got the idea, and endless details on actually getting the right glues and tubes…to tell the truth, I got lost in what she was explaining, but did understand she had been running a series of tests on other people who had either lost hair to an accident, or for some other reason. It was only pure luck my doctor knew of her ‘invention’ and so she was doing final testing on me.
I asked her if she thought I was…well weird? She just laughed a bit before she answered. “Honey…we’re all a little weird! But I don’t think you wanting to be a girl is all that unusual. I have to let you in on a secret: I actually thought about becoming a psychiatrist! Even took some classes a few years back! But…I got involved with this machine instead. Actually, the reason your doctor referred you folks to me is because I took classes from her some years back, and we actually hit it off pretty well…became sort of friends! She knew I was working on this process for hair extensions and…well when she called me asking if I had any ideas about making a crew cut into a girls full head of hair…I volunteered you for one of my mad science experiments!” and she laughed.
So, that’s how we wound up there!
I began to wonder how I could possibly pull any of this off. When I confided that fear to Tess, she just laughed and said not to worry. “Honey…when I get this last batch in place, we’re going to call it quits for the day. I’ll put a cap over your hair to protect it…and to keep you from peeking! Then you can clean up a little in your bedroom while I fix us something for supper. Your mother should be back any minute and we can all sit around and have a nice chat, OK? And believe me, you‘ll be fine when I get finished with all we have planned for you here. You’ll believe you’re a girl yourself!” and she laughed! Talking with her about it made me begin to finally realize this was really going to happen! I was going to have to figure out how to really be a girl!
When she was finished, she motioned for me to go upstairs to clean up a bit before Mother returned and we had something to eat. When I got there, I actually looked at the suitcase. I guess I was pretty spaced out when we arrived earlier and just didn’t really notice. The case was new and…pink. I opened it, relieved to find my toothbrush and other things like soap and stuff.
After I cleaned up and brushed my teeth, I saw my reflection in the mirror. I wanted to take off the cap and see what was going on but I just looked, wondering. As I stood looking, I heard a knock on the door. When I turned around I was really happy to see Mother!
“Oh dear…I can’t see anything! Oh well….come here, sweetheart.” She sat on my bed, and patted beside her that I should sit next to her.
“Honey, your father and I have done a lot of research the past few weeks. And…with a lot of help from your doctor, we’ve been very lucky in arranging all of this with Tess. From here on the lessons on how to act and behave like a proper young lady are going to really get intense, and believe me you still have a lot of catching up to do. I knew from the day I surprised you when you were trying on my clothes…well, you looked so happy then.” and she giggled a little. “Well, up until you saw I was there of course. Anyway, as our son, or our daughter, your father and I are proud of you, and want you to be happy. If that means you’re happier being our daughter instead of our son…well then you will be our daughter. But you’re going to have to work very hard.
I think by now you know…it isn‘t just wearing pretty clothes and all the things I think you imagined as fun. Looking like a girl when Tess is done will be the easy part…starting to believe in your own mind that you are a girl will be hard. It’s not going to be easy for you. Do you think you can do this?”
She looked me in the eyes, a serious look in her face. I thought about what she had just said for some time before I answered. I remember telling her I felt ashamed I wasn’t happy before, and I felt so terribly selfish…but…I really did want to. I would do everything I could to make Her and Dad proud of me yet! She smiled and told me to get over being ashamed. “You didn’t choose this.” And she paused, then smiled a little. “I always wanted a daughter…and if he hasn’t already told you, so did your father. It looks like we get to have one now.”Tess had made a wonderful supper for us and we all sat at a small table in her kitchen and talked. Mother told Tess all the history while I mostly blushed and wanted to crawl under the table. But she took it all in stride, I guess, and seemed to sympathize with me. I’ll always remember her as such a nice lady.
As we sat relaxing at the table, Mother told Tess that ‘David’ had gone with his dad to Japan. We were moving, since the company was transferring him to Portland. Now…I never did really understand at that time what the company was, or did, but it seemed Dad really enjoyed his work, and Mother told Tess it certainly seemed to pay the bills. I later figured out that meant he was paid pretty well, but at age nine, how was I to know? Mother explained that with us moving to Portland everyone would just automatically accept the fact I was their daughter. “In the meantime, since David is gone to Japan with his father, my niece Katherine, here, will be coming to stay with me and help get ready to move, sell the house, and finally go with me on a cross country trip to our new home.” When she said that she just looked at me and smiled. “Cathy…you have a lot to do and learn before then!” I just smiled, the reality of what was happening sinking in further and further.
That night, Mother stayed in the room next to me. The next day, Tess continued working her magic with that amazing machine. Mother left for quite a while, then returned with several bags in tow. Finally, about mid-afternoon of the third day, Tess announced it was done. “Well, the extensions are done - now we get the fun part of giving you a nice style and fixing you all up…this will be the really great part!”
Mother and Tess had already decided on a hair style for me. When I asked about it, they just smiled and looked at each other before turning to me. “You’ll just have to wait and see. Besides, when you’re older, you can choose your own hair style…but until then, young lady, it’s my choice!”
So after attaching all those extensions, Tess washed my hair and began cutting it all off again. Well, not all of it, of course, but it seemed like it from what I saw falling on the floor. After the ‘cut’ she applied some kind of liquid to it and had me sit for about twenty minutes before she washed that out. She walked me over to that machine again and had me sit as she inspected a few of the hairs with the microscope.
“Wonderful…it looks like the tubes did what they were supposed to do…they vanished!” Suddenly I felt a sharp twinge of pain and flinched. “Oh sorry, honey…looks like the glue set well. That hair came out from the roots!” She and Mother laughed as Tess apologized again for startling me.
We went back to her styling chair and she continued working on my hair, rolling part of it, applying yet another liquid which she explained would make the style more permanent, and on and on. During the process, she brought over something that looked like a kind of a gun. She put it up to my ear and there was a quick popping sound and brief pain. In a minute, she did the same to the other side. “Not many young girls your age lucky enough to have pierced ears…later I’ll show you how to keep them from getting infected until they are all healed up.”
Finally, I was fitted with a dryer hood, and given a magazine to read while my hair dried. I had never thought about it I guess, but you know…it gets pretty warm under one of those things.
Tess worked more on my hair until she declared it finished. “Before you get up now, let’s clean up these eyebrows. You’re young so there won’t be much but…lean back now…this will smart just a bit. “ So…for the next few minutes I discovered the horror of having my eyebrows plucked! I was beginning to figure out not everything about being a girl is so wonderful!
She held a picture in front of me and I looked at it. “So…what do you think?” Tess asked. The picture was the face of a young girl and was kind of cute. I liked her hair. I started to turn my head toward Tess and suddenly noticed the girl's head in the picture moved, too. It was something I can’t describe, but at that moment, I was looking in a mirror! I turned straight forward again and just stared at her…at me!
“Honey…what do you think?” Mother asked quietly. I hate to admit it, but tears started to run across my cheek. I was shocked by the reflection. Surely that wasn’t really me! But…it was! I turned toward Mother. I think I cried out something like 'thank you', but I don’t remember…I was just so dumbfounded! I turned back and looked again at my reflection in the mirror and just stared.
Then I looked at Tess…then Mother…then back at the mirror. “Come on now, sweetheart…such a pretty girl and here she is wearing pants?”
Oh…?
As we walked up and into the bedroom I was staying in, I saw the beautiful white full slip with layers of white crinoline skirts, and my dress…like the one Mother had found me wearing on that day that started all this and…“OK…you take off all your clothes now and let’s get you dressed properly, young lady.”
Less than ten minutes later, I was wearing my dress again. And I won’t make light of it…I loved it so…and I was frightened beyond belief! Mother took my old clothes and asked me to follow her back downstairs. In the kitchen area she asked Tess where she could put them so they would never come back. Tess just laughed and walked over to a little door thing on one wall and pulled it open. Mother turned to me and held the clothes out. “I think you should to do this, don’t you?”
I slowly walked to her, took my old jeans and shirt and underpants and socks and shoes and, after hesitating a moment…tossed them in the hole. Tess closed it again and looked at me. “Well…that’s it, then. That’s the garbage shoot. No getting them back now, young lady.“ I looked at the door. I looked at Tess…then at Mother. “Cathy… your old clothes are gone. If you had any doubts before, you shouldn‘t any longer.”