I never knew my Grandmother. She died in an accident when I was quite young, so her sister, my Great Aunt Frances kind of became my substitute grandmother, although at a distance. She had moved out of our rural Oregon town to the sprawling area of Seattle and married well. He, Great Uncle Herb, started a small electronics firm that ended up supplying some major components to Boeing. The business grew from there to become a major supplier of electronics to the aviation industry. When he died, Aunt Frances took over the business. As CEO she enjoyed a six figure salary, not to mention dividends as the majority stockholder. Mom says she could step down and live comfortably on the dividends alone.

  Her daughter had joined a convent and never given them any grandchildren. Now here’s the kicker; my name is Francis Lynne Sherman, just like my Great Aunt; except hers has an e where mine has an i. My mom calls me Frank and my Great Aunt Fran. Mom says that both Francis and Lynne are “neuter gender.” That means they can be used as boy’s names or girls names. I’m just glad that she doesn’t call me Francis.

  Aunt Frances is Dad’s aunt and according to him, she runs a tight ship at her house. She has some rules that need to be obeyed and won’t hesitate to enforce them. What’s more no matter how long it’s been, whatever conditions she decides to enforce them with will be in effect going forward forever.

  I guess you could say that mom married well too. Not as well as Aunt Frances, but Dad earned a good living as vice president in charge of sales for some high tech company in the city.

  We were invited to Great Aunt Frances’ for the week before Christmas and the week after up until New Year’s. The only catch was that Dad had a meeting with some big client and couldn’t join us until Christmas Eve. So Mom and I drove up in her car and Dad got a ticket on Amtrak on the twenty-fourth. Mom would pick him up at the station.

  Mind you, I’d never met Aunt Frances that I can remember, though I’d been the beneficiary of birthday and Christmas gifts from her. The whole point of this trip is that Aunt Frances is getting on in years and she wants to finally get to know her namesake.

So as soon as school was out for winter break mom and I hit the road. It took just over three hours to reach Great Aunt Frances’ house. And what a house. It was quite literally a mansion. It is located on Queen Anne Hill and has a big circular driveway and a view of the Space Needle. I have no idea just how many rooms it has. What’s amazing is that Great Aunt Frances, even being the CEO, still keeps the house by herself; mostly. She does have some help come in once a week to do the deep cleaning and laundry, but there are no servants.

  Aunt Frances greeted us at the door.

  “Ellen, good to see you again,” she said as she hugged Mom. Turning to me, she said, “And Francis, it’s so good to see you again after all these years. Last time I saw you, you were hardly more than a babe in arms.”

  “Hello Aunt Frances. Thank you for all the nice things you’ve sent me for my birthdays and Christmases.”

  “Well this year, I’ll get to see you open the gift. Come on in you two.”

  She led us up a staircase to a long hallway and showed us to two rooms. Mom’s room had an attached bathroom. My room was across the hall and didn’t. I was informed that I’d be sharing a bathroom with Alex and Stephanie. They were my cousins by marriage from Uncle Herb’s side of the family. I never knew anything about his side of the family.

  “Why don’t you unpack later and come down to meet Alex and Stephanie right now.”

  We left our bags in our rooms and followed her downstairs to the back of the house. In the family room, there were two girls sitting on the floor at a low table playing a board game.

  “Alex, Stephanie, this is Francis and his mother, Ellen. Are you about through with that game? I’m sure that Francis would like to join you in another game.”

  One of them answered her. “Yeah, I’ve just about got her beat. We were planning on playing Clue when he got here. You need at least three players. Maybe he could get the board set up on the other end of the table while he waits.”

  I didn’t catch which was which, but I didn’t worry about it. I was sure that sooner or later, one of them would call the other by name.

  “That’s an excellent idea. Francis, you’ll find the games in that closet,” Aunt Frances said, indicating a closet on the wall to the left.

  Mom and Aunt Frances went somewhere, leaving me to set up the game while the girls finished up their game of Sorry. I really didn’t know how to play Clue as a board game. A friend of mine had it for his PlayStation and I’d played it with him a couple of times. So I had to guess it would be pretty much the same. The game looked old. There were wear marks on the box corners like it had been put away a thousand times or more. There was a packet of cards that had seen better days. There was pair of dice and some other things. I took out all the loose stuff and worked on how to set up the board. It was folded in a way that four squares became one large square with the floor plan of the mansion. All the hallways were marked off in squares.

  I found the instructions. The paper was yellowed with age and the printing kind of faded. Following the instructions, I put all the player tokens on their starting square and distributed the weapons to where they needed to be. I separated the cards by type; suspect, room and weapon. I carefully shuffled each and spread them out face down and randomly selected one of each without looking at the face and put it in the “secret” envelope. I had to wait for the girls because one of them needed to shuffle the cards and deal them out.

  Playing the game in its original form was quite different than playing it on PlayStation. We talked more as we moved our pieces around the mansion. Keep notes on paper was different as well. As we played I learned the Alex and Stephanie lived in Tacoma and their parents regularly left them with Aunt Frances over Christmas break because they both worked. As CEO Aunt Frances could reserve that time as her vacation. Their parents would be there for Christmas and again for New Year’s Eve.

  We ended up playing three games of Clue with a break for lunch after the first game. During the lunch break I used the downstairs bathroom. As we were finishing the third game, Aunt Frances came into the room.

  “Francis, did you use the bathroom?”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  “I thought so. I should have told you but I thought that maybe your father or mother might have mentioned it to you but either they didn’t or you forgot. In any case you need to know that in this house no matter what we all sit when using the toilet. Since this is your first time here you can consider this your first and last warning. Sit when you use the bathroom. Don’t forget. If you do I have ways of making sure you remember to do so and I won’t hesitate to use them. Do you understand?”

  “Ah… yes ma’am.”

  Aunt Frances left the room. I was a bit taken aback. She seem angry, though she contained it to simply being firm, extremely firm, about issuing the order.

  I looked a Stephanie and Alex. “She has ways? I asked.

  Alex snorted. “She sure does,” she stated. And Stephanie giggled a little.

  I wondered what Alex or Stephanie could know about the ways Aunt Frances had. They were both girls and girls always sat on the toilet. They had no choice.

  Mom suggested that I take a break and we go upstairs and unpack. So we went to our rooms and got settled in. I wasn’t really sure just how to unpack. I took the two good shirts I had brought and hung them in the closet as well as the two pair of slacks. My underwear found its way into a drawer and my tee-shirts and jeans in another.

  Mom came in and asked. “How are you doing?”

  “OK I think.”

  I showed her the closet and drawers.

  “Looks like you got it covered.” She paused and then went on, “Look I’m sorry that I didn’t say anything about the toilet issue. Somehow I thought that it was your dad’s job to tell you and apparently he thought I would do it. Just remember, sit. It’s the one thing Aunt Francis is adamant about. She really doesn’t like finding the toilet seat up.”

  “OK mom, but it seems kind of silly when all I have to do is pee.”

  “I know dear, but this is Aunt Frances’ house and so while we’re here we do things like she wants.”

  We went back downstairs and found Alex and Stephanie had turned on the television and were watching a movie on the Hallmark channel. I settled in. It was one of those Count Down To Christmas movies. I always thought of them as kind of catering to women’s taste. Alex and Stephanie being girls it didn’t surprise me that they would be watching it. Being outnumbered I just went with the flow. It wasn’t a terrible movie; it was just kind of predictable. You knew that in the end whoever was the stranger in town was going to change their opinion about Christmas, or Santa Claus or whatever and probably fall in love with a local.

  Mom brought us some popcorn and joined us. Aunt Frances had retired to her home office to take care of some business for her company. I guess that even on vacation a CEO has some duty to mind the company business.

  We all headed up to bed about 10:30. I bounded up the stairs and grabbed my PJs so I could get to the shared bathroom ahead of the girls. I’d had to wait for another cousin on mom’s side of the family before and if she was anything to go by I wasn’t about to chance waiting for two of them.

  I closed and locked the bathroom door. I stripped and put on the PJs. Mom had put my toothbrush and hair brush in the cabinet for me, so I brushed my teeth and then brushed out my hair. Mom been after me to get it since school let out last year. I had resisted because I liked the retro fifties ducktail style I could put it in. As I brushed it out, I noted that I probably would need to cut it soon. I was well over my ears and hung down over my forehead nearly to my eyebrows when I brushed it forward. I thought, ‘Wow, my hair is long enough that it could be styled like Alex wears hers.’ The last thing I did was lift the toilet seat and relieve myself. It wasn’t until I flushed that I remembered I was supposed to sit, so I compromised; I put the toilet seat down.

  Alex was standing in the hall when I came out.

  “You’re supposed to sit,” she said.

  “How do you know I didn’t?”

  “I’ve got ears. It makes a noise when you stand. There’s nothing wrong with Aunt Frances’ hearing. You better start sitting. If she’s outside the door and hears what I heard, she won’t like it.”

  “I put the seat down, so you can’t complain about that,” I told her and went to my bedroom.

  In the morning I woke up about 7:30 and I had to go again. So I dashed across the hall to the bathroom and quickly drained the excess liquid. I put the seat down and ran a brush through my hair. I’d have to take a shower sometime today. Yesterday’s mousse that I used to keep it tamed hadn’t fared well and wasn’t going to last the day. It’d be alright to get me through breakfast, but any activity and my hair would fall out of shape. But even brushed as nice as I could get it, it was looking a little ratty.

  Back in my bedroom, I got dressed carefully so as to not mess up my hair much. I thought that I’d be the only one up at this hour so I headed for the kitchen. I saw that Aunt Frances had a Keurig and some Cafe Escapes, Dark Chocolate K-Cups. I figured I snag some of that and watch the sunrise out the windows from the family room. I was surprised that Aunt Frances was already there. She was at Keurig adding some creamer to her coffee.

  “Good morning Francis.”

  I wished she’d quit calling me “Francis.” Mom and Dad call me Frank. Sometimes when Dad is trying to sound wise as he tells me something he’ll call me “Frankie.” As in, “Frankie me boy, I’m going to let you in on a little secret.”

  “Good morning. I didn’t think anyone would be up. I was going to fix myself some hot chocolate and watch the sunrise.”

  She smiled. “I usually do that with coffee when I don’t have to leave for the office before sunrise. Here let me.”

  She got a large cup from the cupboard and put a chocolate K-cup in the machine and selected the large setting. A few minutes later, we were sharing a couch that let us see the skyline of Seattle. We were just in time. The sky in the east was just beginning to turn pink. I don’t know why, but I always liked watching sunrise and sunset. There’s just a natural beauty to it that draws me.

  We sat silently sipping our drinks as the sky began to brighten and the few high clouds took on a red/orange tint on the underside. At last the rosy glow gave way to showing the upper curve of the sun. I think I held my breath as it grew. We’d dimmed the lights and the sun’s rays were beginning to cast shadows in the room. It was gorgeous. I glanced over at Aunt Frances and she was smiling.

  When the sun was finally up, she turned to me.

  “It’s nice to know that I share something with my namesake. It makes me feel close to you even though it’s been over a decade since I last saw you. Note to self. ‘Self, take more time for family.’ I’d like to see you more often. I’m about semi-retire so that will give me more time to do that. You know that Alex and Stephanie take their school breaks with me. Would you like to do that as well? Their parents both work and it’s easier that hiring a sitter for them. I know your mom doesn’t work outside the home so maybe not the whole time, but part of it maybe?”

  “Would Alex and Stephanie be here?”

  “Not for spring break, but for Christmas they would.” I’d love to have you to myself over spring break.”

  “Why wouldn’t they come for spring break?”

  “Washington’s spring break is the week after Oregon’s. If you stay the weekend after, then maybe they would come the weekend before their break and you could share that time.”

  “I think I’d like that. I mean, I just met them, but they are nice. Not like my mom’s family. The kids in that family think they’re better than anyone else. And I’ve always wondered about you since we kind of have the same name.”

  Mom came into the room. “Frank, you’re up early. I thought I’d only find Aunt Frances. I know she likes to watch sunrise.”

  “It seems that my namesake shares more than just a name. He likes sunrise too. I think we have a standing date to watch it together while you’re here.”

  We decided that we’d get breakfast started. Aunt Frances went up to wake Stephanie and Alex while I helped Mom get some pancakes going.

  After breakfast, I slipped into the bathroom and relieved myself. When I came out, Aunt Frances was there.

  “You didn’t sit.”

  “Ah… no, but I put the seat down when I was through.”

  “That’s only part of the problem with standing. This is the third time. You didn’t sit when you got up this morning either.”

  She walked away and went to her office.

  “I told your there was nothing wrong with her hearing,” Alex said smugly.

  “Yeah, well I don’t know what the problem is. I put the seat down.”

  Alex just shook her head.

  “I just want you to know that it’ll be OK. We won’t think any the less of you,” Stephanie told me.

  They were talking in riddles; nonsense, utter nonsense. I ignored them.

  Mom had turned the television on and we settled in to watching. About a half an hour later, I noticed my hair was having trouble staying where it belonged.

  “I think I’ll take a shower.”

  “Good idea. Your hair is a little worse for the wear,” mom said. “You should change clothes as well. You dripped syrup on your shirt.”

  I took my time in the shower. Aunt Frances had an awesome hand held shower wand that had a pulsing setting that felt really good. I’m thinking it must have been an hour including the time to brush out my hair and dry off. I wrapped my robe around me and headed for my room.

  I pulled the drawer open to get some clean underwear. I froze in disbelief. The drawer was full of panties. ‘What the hey… Did I wander into Alex’s bedroom by mistake?’

  I went to the hall and looked. No, my room was on the other side of the hall from the bathroom and Alex and Stephanie were on the same side. Back in my room I opened the closet and found skirts, blouses and dresses where my slacks and dress shirts should have been.

  I went to the top of the stairs and called out. “Mom? Can you come up here for a minute?”

  “Be right there,” she called back.

  I went back to the door of my room and waited.

  “What’s the matter, Frank?” she asked when she got there.

  “Is this my room?” I asked as I walked into it.

  “Yes, of course it is.”

  “Then what’s with this?” I asked indicating the open underwear drawer and open closet.

  “Aunt Frances did warn you. This is her way to remind you to sit on the toilet. You’ll have wear dresses or skirts and blouses from now on while you’re here.”

  “Mom, I can’t wear girls’ clothes. Especially not the underwear.”

  “I don’t think you have a choice.”

  “But what about Dad and Alex and Stephanie’s parents? I can’t dress like a girl while they’re here. They’ll freak out.”

  “I can tell you that they won’t.”

  I lost the argument and soon found myself in the girliest outfit I’ve ever seen. At mom’s insistence I went downstairs. She convinced me that I couldn’t just stay in my room for the duration.

  To my surprise no one said anything or acted in any way that it was unusual for me to wear a dress. I resigned myself to tough it out until Dad got here. He’d be here tomorrow and will talk some sense into Aunt Frances.

  After a while I kind of got used to the outfit and began to appreciate the feel of the clothes. They were nothing like what I’d worn before. In reality, I kind of liked them.

  To my chagrin I found my pajamas had been replaced with a nightgown. In the morning, I was in the bathroom still in my nightgown and I did remember to sit. I opened the door and then decided to see if I could do something with my hair as I was brushing it, Alex scurried into the room, shut the door and said, “Gotta go!”

  She hiked up her nightie, pulled her panties to her knees and sat.

  “Ah… I may be dressed as a girl, but I’m still a boy you know,” I told her.

  “Yeah, well so am I.”

  “What? You’re a boy??!”

  “Yeah, two years ago I learned what you just learned. If you ever come back here, you’ll have to wear dresses again. But don’t worry; you’ll come to like it. Heck when I’m bored at home, I sometimes borrow Stephanie's things. Not very often but she likes it when I do.”

  I was flabbergasted.

  Mom went to get Dad later that day and I could hardly wait. He’d straighten this out. Though with Alex’s revealing himself to be a boy I was wondering. His parents had to go along with it, and Mom didn’t seem surprised or upset about me in a dress.

  They got back about 11:00.

  “Dad, I’m glad you’re here.”

  “I’m glad to be here too. I see you ran afoul of Aunt Frances.”

  “Yeah, we gotta talk about that.”

  “Give me a minute or two I’ve got to go change.”

  Taking his suitcase he hurried up the stairs.

  Aunt Frances came out of her office. “Did you pick up Loren?” she asked Mom.

  “Yes he’s gone upstairs to change.”

  “Good. I was just going to remind him to do that.”

  About an hour later, I was in the family room when in walked a woman. I’d never seen her before she was wearing a dark blue dress with a full skirt and heels. Her hair was the same color as Dad’s only it went to her shoulders. She wore light make up. It seemed I should know her from somewhere. She looked really familiar.

  “OK, so you wanted to talk about how Aunt Frances enforces her sit rule?”

  “Dad??!”

  “Yes, as you can see, I had to learn at your age that when you’re in Aunt Frances’ house you do what she says.”

  “So when you come to visit her you wear dresses?”

  “Since I was nine. Actually, I’ve learned to enjoy it. I’m sure you will too.”

  “But you’re wearing wig and high heels and makeup.”

  “I figure if I’m going to wear dresses, I might just as well. It looks better when I look in the mirror.”

  Well that took the wind out of my sails. If Dad still had to wear dresses here, there was no chance he could talk Aunt Frances out of making me do the same.

  Christmas day came upon us and Stephanie and Alex’s parents showed up. The never blinked seeing Alex, Dad and me in dresses. They just acted as if it was an everyday thing.

  After that, I kept getting up to watch the sunrise with Aunt Frances and by New Year’s I’ll admit that it seemed natural to wear a dress.

  Finally, late on New Year’s Day, I got my boy’s clothes back. We packed up mom’s car and said goodbye for the drive home.

  Dad was driving. As we headed down I-5 he looked at me in the rearview mirror and asked, “Did you make any New Year’s resolutions?”

  “Yeah. I resolved to always do whatever Aunt Frances says when I’m at her house.”

  Mom and Dad laughed.

  “She asked me if you could come back for a visit on spring break. I told her I didn’t mind and if you wanted to you could. Do you want to?”

  I hesitated a bit and then answered. “Yeah, I think I do.”

  “You do remember that from now on when you go there; you’ll have to wear dresses, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, I remember. I really liked the green one with ruffles.”

  Alex and Dad were right. I did come to enjoy it.