CHAPTER 13 -- My Fifteen Minutes of Fame

Around the time I discovered Dr. Newcomb's "Christmas present," as I started calling it, we got a call from a local TV reporter, Gary Saunders. He'd apparently heard about my little mishap at the hospital and wanted to run a story about it. I thought I needed that like a baseball bat to the head, but my Dad thought it would help put pressure on the hospital to settle the malpractice suit. We talked with the lawyer and also with my uncle, because he had a lot more experience with PR and talking to the press than my Dad. So we agreed to an interview to take place sometime between Christmas and New Year's.

The lawyer and my uncle had me in for a couple of sessions where they explained to me what I needed to emphasize and what I should downplay. They thought I should mostly say how weird and unhappy it made me feel, and though I should mention some of the bullying, I shouldn't make a big deal about it since it might make people think that the school was the problem and not the hospital. I thought that was backwards -- the sex change wasn't fun, but what was really making me miserable was all the crap I was getting at school.

Anyway, a few days after Christmas, we met on a sidewalk across from the hospital. I insisted I didn't want it near my house because the last thing I wanted was for people to go drive by to see where the freak lives. It was a grey day so they had lights set up so we wouldn't look like zombies. The reporter looked like he thought he was the biggest celebrity on the planet. He had a fancy suit and a tie with the TV station's logo and his hair was slicked up in a fancy wave and he had this big self-satisfied smile on his face. Yeah, he didn't make a good impession on me.

The lawyer had had me put on my boy-jeans which were really too small and a band T-shirt which was also now a little too small, so I would look like I was supposed to be a boy, but they would also see that I had boobs and a girl's butt. It was kind of humiliating.

They started off with some shots of me and Mr. Saunders with the hospital behind us. The hospital hadn't let them inside (I couldn't blame them), but they'd gotten some close-up shots of the outside. Then they got me to face the camera and Mr. Saunders started in.

"For KZTV, this is Gary Saunders, star reporter--" No, he didn't actually say "star reporter", but he might as well have. "-- and I have with me Martin Rawlings. Until six months ago, Martin was a normal boy, spending time with other boys, playing baseball. Then an unfortunate motorcycle accident landed him in here" -- he pointed to the hospital -- "where he was mistakenly exposed to an experimental treatment which turned him from a boy into --" (dramatic pause while they pointed the camera straight at me) "-- a girl. Martin, can you describe for us what happened to you?"

"Well, uh, it's kind of embarrassing."

"I understand. But we need to know. We need to know what they (points at hospital) did to you."

"My, uh, stuff started shrinking. It took a while. Months. And then I started getting, uh, breasts. I didn't know what was happening. I thought maybe I had some strange fatal disease. It was scary. Weird. Surreal."

"Would you say, humiliating?"

"Kind of. I mean, if I were a girl, at least it would be what's supposed to happen. But I'm a boy. It's like if I had put a West High shirt on in the morning and came to school and when I looked, I saw it had morphed into a Hollingsworth sweatshirt."

"Hollingsworth High is the arch rival of Martin's school," Mr. Saunders explained. "Did you have a lot of problems at school because of it? Or with your friends?"

"Oh, yeah! Lots of people act like I'm some kind of pervert, even thought it wasn't me that did anything. And my friends are afraid to say anything because the other kids might think they were perverts, too." The lawyer was watching, and I could see he wasn't happy."

"So would you say you're getting bullied because of it?"

I knew I was supposed to downplay it, but I'm no good at lying. "Yeah, kind of." I couldn't look at the lawyer.

"How is your family taking it?"

"They're trying to be supportive. Like, my brother is trying to stick up for me at school. But it's hard. It's weird for them, too."

"Are you starting to get interested in boys now?" He gave me kind of a leering look.

I looked at him like he was crazy, then I remembered I was supposed to look at the camera. "Right now, I don't have time to get interested in boys or girls. I'm still trying to figure out what's happening to me."

"This must be horrible for you, suddenly having to be a girl. Who would want that?"

I kept thinking what Teresa said, and I started getting mad. "What do you mean, 'who would want that'? Look: I didn't want to be a girl. I was, well, okay with being a boy. But I've got a Mom, and an aunt, and a cousin, she's been like the best friend and the biggest help to me in all of this, and" -- I pointed at the script lady -- "her, and all these girls and women. And if I say who would want to be like them, then I'm telling them, your lives are no good. And that's an insult and a lie. Being a girl is just as good as being a boy!" I practically shouted that last bit, but then I didn't know what to say next. I was sure the lawyer was super pissed at me. "But it's a big change, and getting used to it is hard. Really hard."

"Cut!" said Mr. Saunders. "I think we have enough." Then he shook my hand and said "thanks, boy. Keep up the fight." Fortunately, the lawyer didn't try to talk to me. My uncle and Teresa led me to their car. Teresa gave me a big hug.

"I really liked what you said at the end. I hope they air it. 'Being a girl is just as good as being a boy.' That's a great line."

"I'm sure the lawyer is pissed, though. He wants to say the hospital ruined my life, and here I am saying it's just as good as it was before."

My uncle answered, "he won't have any trouble spinning it. What you said just shows your injury hasn't defeated you, it doesn't say that what the hospital did isn't an injury. And you did say that it's causing you problems."

The next day, the TV station told us I would be on the 7:00 p.m. news. Most of what I said was there, especially my rant at the end. They somehow got a closeup of me when I sad the bit about "really hard." It was a real tear-jerker. But I couldn't help wondering if it would make things better or worse at school.