A Stepfather's Promise - Chapter 3

Printer-friendly version

After dinner and a dessert of cherry pie with ice cream, the kids decided they wanted to play a bit, and Elizabeth took Wendy and watched over them.

“George is now identifying as a girl,” I said to Mary. “Any legal opinion on this?”

“I’ve dealt with it a couple times, but never in someone so young. I did have a client who was 17 and being beaten regularly by her father for being trans. I helped her earn emancipation and get into college on a scholarship. She’s now a sophomore at MassArt, studying photography.”

“I can assure you that I will never harm George.”

“I know, Sean. You have a good heart. I’m more worried about what you would do to anyone who would try to harm her.”

I hugged my sister.

Bev spoke up. “We need to come up with a new name for George. I am not naming her Georgia or Georgina.”

Mary and I looked at each other and then nodded. I had always wanted to name my first daughter after our mother, and my first son after our father – and by extension, myself. So I’m a little vain.

“How about Siobhan, after our mother?” Mary asked.

“I like it, but let’s ask George,” was Bev’s reply

I went into the living room. Alice and Paul were asleep on the couch, and George was reading a book on the floor in front of Elizabeth, who held a sleeping Wendy in her arms, and George looked up at us as we entered.

“Mommy, Daddy, can I change my name?” came out of her mouth.

“Honey, we were just talking about that with your Aunt Mary,” Bev replied.

“We even came up with a name we want to give you, if you want it,” I continued.

“As long as it’s not something close to George,” George said. Bev, Mary and I had to stifle a laugh to keep from waking the other children. Elizabeth looked at us with interest.

“Mary and your dad suggested naming you after their mother, Siobhan,” Bev replied, before adding, “And I think your middle name should be Mary, after both your aunt and my mom.”

Both Mary and myself smiled at this. Our smiles grew bigger, and so did Bev’s, when George next spoke.

“OK, I’m now Siobhan Mary O’Brien!”

Mary Murmured in my ear, “I’ll help you get the paperwork sorted, after you’ve all seen the shrink.” I pecked my sister on the cheek, then she relieved Elizabeth of the sleeping baby. I noticed it was getting a little late and scooped up Paul to bring him up to his room, while Bev did the same with Alice. The little tyke didn’t even stir as I changed him into his pajamas and tucked him into bed, and after I got downstairs, I got Siobhan to get ready for bed as Elizabeth and Mary said their goodbyes. By the time my sister and her family left, Siobhan was in bed, and Bev and I had cleaned up, I was dead tired and went to sleep.

up
103 users have voted.
If you liked this post, you can leave a comment and/or a kudos! Click the "Thumbs Up!" button above to leave a Kudos

Comments

Took a while on this one

Sorry for the delay, I work in retail, and as you can imagine, the last 6 weeks have been busy for me, especially as I work in the copy center of a major national office supply chain and due to the pandemic, we got FLOODED with a very large number of Christmas cards to print this year and we also got two or three times as many UPS packages to handle as we are a UPS partner. I got home most nights mentally exhausted and wanting to do nothing more than to play a random video game, eat dinner, and pass out. Hopefully now that is over I can try to maintain some form of regular writing.

- Do what is kind and right, not what is absolute law and might do harm.

Going well

Hi, nice story so far. Thanks for sharing. Cheers.