Emily Play's Dotty
A “How I Spent My Summer Vacation: I became a Girl!” Gaiden
by
Rebecca Coleman

-1-
Volunteering to Play Dotty

I tended to spend most if not all of my free time down at my hometown's library. I have something of a desire to write, and well I've always wanted to write. I had this dream of fine tuning my craft and maybe even getting some of my silly ideas published. And well in order to become a successful writer, I always felt that one needed to read, and I mean they needed to read a lot. Like at least one novel a week or something, maybe two if they could swing it.

Because you know, you could learn so much about writing from simply reading a book, I don't mean reading stuff online, though I guess that could count. I mean like sitting down with a book and trying to figure out what the guy or gal who wrote the book wanted to say. Like what the message they wanted to get across.

Reading, and doing a boatload of it was the only sure-fire way to figure out how to successfully string together words. I mean when you strip away all the fancies from it, writing was just stringing different kinds of words together to form a complete sentence. Such sentences had to work together in order to successfully tell a story. I also think writers were the kind of people who suffered from vivid hallucinations because they often spent most of their time living in an imagined world, listening to their imaginary friends talk to each other.

I guess, but I could be wrong. Then again what in the hell do I know about writing anyway? I'm going to be repeating my freshman year this coming autumn at St. Clare's Roman Catholic Academy. Why am I going to be repeating my Freshman Year? Because my mom just passed away after an eighteen month struggle with lung cancer, and I missed a huge chunk of my first year of high school taking care of her in her last fleeting moments on this earth.

And to exacerbate things I'm also suffering from gender dysphoria. But that is a story and a problem for another time. Anyway getting back on the subject. It was one of those afternoons, you know those late Summer afternoons, you know those lazy Summer afternoons that we Mississippians are famous for. And my part of the world was undergoing a massive heatwave, I mean it, the crops in the field had turned to dust, all the creeks and brooks in the woods behind my house had dried up, and the concrete sidewalk outside was so hot, one could pop down to the local quick-n-go and buy an egg from the dairy case, take it out of the cardboard carton and crack it and in a matter of seconds the egg would start to fry.

Anyway, having made my selection of books, I started to walk toward the front of the desk. The picking this time around had been slime. But I managed to find a few choice vintage “Nightmare Street” titles that would hold my attention for the next few days. But as I neared the desk, I noticed that there was some kind of notice hanging in the middle of the hallway that connected the front door to the lobby. Intrigued, I moved a little closer to get a better look. There was something special about it. I quickly noticed what was unusual about the handbill was the animesque image that was located in the center.

The image was that of an anime style girl, who had shoulder length strawberry blonde hair. And sparkling blue eyes. She was dressed in what I best could describe as white dress that was dotted with huge black spots. Kind of like a Dalmatian. A pink, leather collar that kind of looked like a choker was fitted around her neck and from the collar there hung a shiny brass tag. A headband with two doggy ears completed her outfit. And finally she seemed to be seated in a large, plastic bowl. That kind of reminded me of a dog's food bowl.

Then I noticed that printed below the picture was a good bit of text. Slowly I started to read aloud the text.

“Manchester's Animal Shelter is hosting its annual 'Fish n' Chips' Fundraiser this coming Saturday Afternoon. Fried catfish plates will be offered for sale. There will also be fried chicken tender plates and friend shrimp plates too. The chicken tender plates will be on sale for ten dollars, and will include four large hand cut chicken tenders, thick cut french fries, a small side salad, a dinner roll, and a glass of sweet or unsweetened tea. Fried catfish plates will be on sale for fifteen dollars, each catfish plate will include five pieces of catfish, thick cut french fries, a small side salad, a dinner roll and a glass of sweet and unsweetened tea. Shrimp plates will be going for eighteen dollars and will feature twelve friend shrimp, thick cut french fries, a small side salad, a dinner roll, and a glass of sweet and unsweetened tea.”

I paused before I started to read again.

“For entertainment live music will be provided by the local band 'The Soggy Yazoo River Bottom Boys'. The Manchester Animal Shelter will also be looking for one brave volunteer to assume the role of 'Princess Dotty the Dalmatian Princess'. The Altar Guilds of Our Lady of the Bayou Roman Catholic Church and Trinity Episcopal Church will also be offering home-made cakes and brownies for sale. If enough money is donated our 'Dotty' will be given a 'Special Meal'. All money raised from the selling of plate lunches, from the bake sales and from the donations to 'Feed Dotty' will go directly into the bank account of The Manchester Animal Shelter. Manchester's only No Kill Animal Shelter. And will be used to buy food and toys for the animals.”

I took another deep breath. I was not used to doing this much reading, well reading aloud that is.

“Those who wish to volunteer to play Dotty, can pick up a request form at the front desk”

“Could you please be quite?” A woman from behind the front desk said as she peered toward me. She wore a white, cream colored blouse that was tucked into the waistline of a charcoal gray skirt. Her long brunette hair was pinned up in a tight bun. She looked quite annoyed too. “This is a library after all. And believe it or not some people still come here to read.”

“Sorry about that ma'am.” I said meekly.

“I hope so. You can consider this your first and last verbal warning for the day.” The woman said in a stern tone of voice. “If I'm forced to tell you to quiet down again. I will be forced to ask you to leave the library for the rest of the day. I will be forced to put a black check mark next to your account. You can consider strike one. Three strikes and your banned from library for good.”

I felt myself starting to blush a little as the women scolded me. I fought back the urge to get sassy with her and instead I took a deep, calming breath and walked toward the desk.

“Yes ma'am.” I said blushing a bright red as I handed over my selection of books.

“Good. I hope we've come to an understanding young lady.” The woman said in a cool, crisp, snappy tone of voice. Her tone of voice made me feel about as tall as my thump. And at that moment I wished for the ground to open up in a fissure and swallow me whole. “Now, how can I help you?”

“I would like to check these books please ma'am.” I said in a meek tone of voice. I felt about three inches tall at the moment. “And I would like to fill out one of those forms too, so you know volunteer.”

The woman sighed and shook her head from one side to the other. “One thing at a time. I'm sure you understand that I'm a human. And humans have two arms. First I will need to see your library card.”

I swallowed hard again and pulled my purse around and slowly I started to dig through the blasted thing. My purse was a small, pink, faux leather that was in the shape of a corset. The purse had been given to my aunt on my fifteenth birthday. Along with a lot of other things. Anyway I was still carrying around a purse.

“Sorry, I'm new to having a purse.” I said bushing as I kept digging through the thing. I made a mental note to clean the thing out when I got home.

I could tell the woman wanted to make a sharp remark, instead she said nothing but only raised her eyebrows slightly.

“Leaving your tomboy phase behind?” She asked as she leered toward me.

“You could say that!” I said with a little too much pepper.

“And you decided to celebrate that very important milestone by volunteering to play Dotty?” She asked again.

“No, I decided to volunteer because I have nothing better to do with my free time. Plus, I'll be helping puppies and puppies are cute.” I said snapping open my pocket book I then pulled out my plastic library card and handed it over to the woman.

The woman made a weird sound, it was like she was clearing her throat or something.

“I see.” The woman reached out and took my library card. “While I'm doing this, please do me a favor and start filling out the forum you need to volunteer.” And with that the woman reached down and pulled out a piece of paper, she slapped the piece of paper down on the desk and pushed it toward me.

“With pleasure.” I said trying to smile a little.

The forum was your basic forum. The first thing I had to tell them was my name. Well of course they wanted to know my name. But for some reason I froze up. I felt my hands starting to tremble a little. I felt my heart starting to race a little. And I'm sure at that moment I looked like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car.
Now, my penmanship is utter shit. I think that partly due to my dyslexia. But I was getting a bit better at it. Still, I would have loved to have filled out the forum on a computer or something. Taking a deep breath though, I reached over and picked up a fountain pen and with a unsteady hand I started to write.

“Emily Hannah Anderson” for the part of the forum that called for my name. Below that I wrote “467 Pecan Circle, Manchester, Mississippi, 39194.” that was for the part of the forum that called for my address. The next part threw me for a loop, it called for my school, well right now I was not enrolled in any school, well any of the local schools. But since I'd be attending St. Clare's Roman Catholic Academy in September I decided to roll with it and put down “St. Clare's Roman Catholic Academy.”

The next section called for my sex. And well here I froze. I was still getting used to being Emily and the town was still getting used to Emily as well. And Emily was a girl, so for sex I put down “Female” next they wanted to know my date of birth. I put that down and no, I'm not telling you guys that. That bit of information is on a need to know basis only.

And finally my phone number. Writing down all that took a painful fifteen minutes and I was sweating bullets at the end.

“Here you go Ms. Anderson.” The woman's voice broke me out of the daze I'd been in. “I can't say I approve of your choices, I've always found those books to be nothing more than trash. If I had the power, I would have them pulled from the selves and tossed into the trash cans.” She said huffing as she peered toward me.

I said nothing.

“And the forum.” The woman said in a matter of fact tone of voice.

I handed over the forum.

“You have dreadful handwriting. For a girl this is horrible handwriting. I should put this in the trash and make you redo it. Honesty you write like a boy!” She said, clicking her tongue at me as she looked over the form.

I felt myself starting to blush, I was just two seconds away from telling that woman what she could do with that forum. That being she could roll it up nice and tight, smother it in grease and stick it right up her ass because I was about to say to hell with this thing. But I kept my cool.

“I guess I have no choice. You are the first one to volunteer and with the deadline being this coming Friday and today being Tuesday you have me over a barrel.” The woman said, sighing. “Well Ms. Anderson, I trust you will be on time?”

“About that.” I said blushing I really wanted to jump over the desk and strangle this woman right about now. She was really pushing my buttons and not in a good way. “Where is..” But I was cut off before I could finish my sentence.

“The fundraiser will take place here.” The woman said. “On the Manchester Commons.” She paused. “The event starts at eleven o' clock sharp. But I would love it, if you can be there at least a hour before. And it's this coming Saturday. So set your alarm and don't sleep it.”

And that was that.

End Of Chapter One