Chapter 1
The move

Spring break wasn’t as much fun as it could have, that is, should have been. You’d think that when your mother won the lottery for 1.7 million dollars, that you’d be doing something really great on spring break. But no, my sister, Lucy, and I were packing boxes. Mom had this really weird idea. She grew up on the farm and thought there was nothing more wholesome than living on a farm. She sold the house and between her first year's annuity check and the equity in the house, she bought twenty acres with a house and an old fashion barn.

It was like something out of a Ma & Pa Kettle movie. There was a chicken coup built right up to one end of the barn and pig sty against the other. There were the remnants an apple orchard (ten trees) and some pasture where you could run a couple of head of cattle. Mom wanted to get a milk cow, some pigs and chickens. A real hayseed idea. She thought it would be good for me to learn to milk a cow. Good grief; even if I wanted to be a dairy farmer, cows are all milked by machine these days anyhow.

The house was one of those big old things. A huge kitchen, a root cellar and big dining room. Not a formal dining room, mind you, but it was separated from the kitchen by a swinging door and the living room by a double sliding door. There were two bedrooms downstairs and four bedrooms up. There was even a floored attic, with somebody’s old trunks and such in it. Not a lot mind you just the leavings that someone didn’t want anymore. All of that and one bathroom. You’d think that with all those bedrooms, even in the twenties or thirties when the house was built, they would have thought that a second bath upstairs would be a good idea. I mean in those days, farmers had lots of kids instead of hiring farm hands. With four bedrooms up there could be eight to ten kids. It was obvious that the two bedrooms down were supposed to be for mom and dad and grandma and grandpa, the extended family, you know. How would twelve to fourteen people all take bathes with only one bathroom and no shower besides.

The barn was kind of cool. It had a genuine hay loft. There was even some hay still in it. The whole place needed paint. Mom said that next year when she got her check, we could remodel the place but for this year, she’d have to keep working in town and we’d just have to tough it out with just one bathroom. One thing though, if Lucy was occupying the bathroom when I had to go, there was still a working outhouse near the pig sty. (Is there anything not to work?)

Lucy, mom and I worked all weekend to get the whole house packed up and then on Monday rented a small U-Haul truck. We loaded the beds, easy chairs, our clothes, the dishes, pots and pans, the stereo and the TV. We moved onto "The Farm," as mom said. – How come you move into a house, but onto a farm?

I was lucky, I guess. Mom hired some hungry moving company to move the rest of our things on Thursday. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday cleaning the farm house so that they could move us in. Lucy didn’t bring all of her clothes. She had enough to fill one of the extra bedrooms. Maybe I’m exaggerating some, but I don’t think she ever threw anything away. She got her growth early and I’m sure that she still had the clothes she wore when she was my age.

It was really kind of funny. Lucy got one side of the hall and I got the other upstairs. We split it up that way, because the closets on each side were kind of a communal affair. You could walk into it from one room and out into the other. Lucy was afraid I’d take advantage of the closet to peek at her. Mom got the two bedrooms downstairs. We each had two bedrooms. All the closets in the house had cedar inside. It smelled really good.

When the movers got there, they screwed up the instructions. All of Lucy's old clothes ended up in the spare room on my side of the hall. Mom said since they were her old clothes, we’d move them later; we had too much to do to worry about it right now. That suited me just fine. It would make it easier to borrow the things I wanted.

It was kind of neat having an older sister. If she had been a little sister, I’d have to get into mom's clothes. Her taste in clothes was too much the older generation. Lucy was just three years older than I. That made her clothes just about the right size. Especially the older ones. I discovered when I was still in third grade, that it was great fun wearing her clothes. I started out with panties. It was innocent enough.

Mom and dad had just separated. Mom was an emotional wreck. The laundry wasn’t being done as regular as it might. Pure and simple, I ran out of underwear. The logical solution for me was to borrow some from Lucy. Mom was in her room crying so I didn’t bother to ask. So I just marched into Lucy’s room and borrowed them. I discovered that I liked them. So I just kept borrowing until the laundry got done. By then I was hooked. I began to borrow even when I still had clean underwear. Then, I needed pajamas. I borrowed again. That wasn’t as much fun. Her pajamas were cotton flannels like mine. The real difference was her tops were pullover and the bottoms didn’t have a fly. Aside from a few ruffles here and there, there wasn’t that much difference.

The next time, I went for a nightgown. That was fun. It was knee length nylon. I remember it well and I still like it a lot. Although, she has a few that I like better. It was kind of like a first love. You always have a special spot in your heart for the first. That nightie is powder blue and sleeveless. It has rose studded lace for straps that bend to trim the neckline. On her, it was knee length. On me it was mid-calf. I liked it so much; I wore it for two weeks, before I put it in the laundry. It’s a good thing that mom spent most of her time crying or she may have noticed that the nightgown was considerably dirtier than Lucy would have gotten it. That was two years ago.

 

Chapter 2
Settling in

We began to settle in after the move. Lucy still didn’t have her old clothes across the hall at the end of the week. But come Sunday morning, mom declared a holiday. I decided to go exploring. I started out in the barn. I discovered that there were all sorts of little nooks and crannies in the rafters across from the hay loft. I felt sure that I would be the only one to go over there, because you had to walk across a four-inch-wide beam to get over to that part of the barn. They were about three feet wide and four feet long. It was some kind of left over space where the steep part of the roof went up from the wall to the other part. The flooring was just rough cut planks laid down and not even nailed. There was no uniformity at all some were 2 X 12’s and some were 2 X 6’s or anything in between.

When I tired of that, I checked out the apple orchard. The trees were just starting to bud out. It would be months before I got any apples from them. There was supposed to be a fence around the property, so I decided to see just how big the property was. Mom told me not to go off the property. It made sense that I should know just where the property line was so I couldn’t stray off it by accident. I found the fence. It was a three strand barbed wire strung on cedar fence posts. I turned away from the highway and began to walk. At first the land across the fence looked pretty much like ours. There were some cattle grazing a ways across the field. Then there was another fence that met ours and the land was all plowed in neat furrows. I suppose that it was ready for planting. A ways farther and I came to the corner of the property. I guess twenty acres isn’t as much as you would think. I had come only about the distance of three city blocks. The new fence ran kind of downhill. Not steep but enough to notice when I walked. It was about four blocks or maybe only three and a half; it was hard to tell. Our side of the fence had some small trees on it. They were some kind of thorn tree. Sometimes I had to pick my way through them. I got stuck three or four times. I found out later that they were called Hawthorne trees and originally they were planted in hedge rows in place of fences. Livestock didn’t like to go through them. Anyway, I came to another corner.

The downhill continued steeper now. The fence line disappeared behind the brow of a low hill. I could just see the beginning of a pond on the other side of the fence. There was a big old oak tree. I was willing to bet that the oak tree was on the edge of the pond, but I couldn’t see the base. As I got around the hill, I could see that the fence just kept going right into the pond. The oak tree had a limb that went straight across the pond and it had a rope with a big old knot in the end, hanging from a limb over the water. Cool! A swimming hole. I knew where I was going to spend my summer.

I spent some time at the pond. You know skipping rocks and OK, so I disobeyed a little. I couldn’t help it. I was climbing the tree and the only way to get high enough to reach the limb with the rope was to climb out over the other property. I didn’t intend to touch the other property. I wanted to get the rope and see how far it would swing out into the pond. But after I had pulled the rope up and was climbing back with it in hand, I slipped. Lucky I had a good hold on the rope, because I was able to hang on. When the slack was gone it began to swing out over the pond. The back swing was over the neighboring land. To obey the letter of mom's instructions, I would have to drop off the rope into our side of the pond. Since I didn’t want to get wet, I dropped off on dry land. The neighbors land. What mom didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.

I could tell it was going to be an awesome rope swing. At the bottom, it missed the water by only about a foot and a half. At the end of the swing, I was at least eight feet up and I only had a part swing. I was sure that by getting the rope back into the tree from our sided of the pond, I could reach fifteen feet, maybe even twenty.

I learned why barbed wire was so effective in keeping animals from crossing; I got stuck in three places trying to get across the fence. But it wasn’t as bad as the Hawthorne trees. There was a foot path worn uphill along the fence I followed. In less than a block of relatively steep climbing, I could see the top of the barn. I thought I could see car traffic through the trees ahead so I cut off cross country toward the barn when the path did. All in all, I spent about three hours exploring. It was lunch time when I got back.

I made a report over lunch about what all I had found. Of course I told them the coolest thing was the pond and the rope swing. I vowed to take up residence at the pond when it got warm. Mom allowed as how the real-estate agent mentioned that there was a stock watering pond somewhere on the property. But since mom wasn’t really interested in watering stock, she kind of forgot about it.

 

Chapter 3
New School

Monday morning came early. Mom had us up early she had taken two personal days on each end of her vacation week. The Friday before break and Monday after. She took us to school to register. We found out the middle school (my school) and the high school (Lucy’s school) were only a block apart, separated by a park. The little town was a real jerkwater place. The sign said. "Population 275.” That must have been on Sunday morning.

I registered first since my classes started before hers. I started at 7:30 and got out at 2:30. Lucy started at 8:00 and got out at 3:00. The first day in a new school was a bummer. I had done that at the beginning of the year. At least then, I wasn’t the only kid wandering around lost. All my friends were in the same boat. Here I didn’t even know anyone to ask directions from. I was late to three of my classes. I ate lunch alone and just sat on the steps during lunch break. I guess my clothes marked me as a city kid. I was wearing the coolest baggy pants and the wildest tank top, tee-shirt combination and my sneakers were the latest in thing at my old school. But here, all the guys were in plain jeans like somebody’s dad might wear and of all things flannel shirts over plain white tee-shirts. The cool guys had their shirts unbuttoned. Really lame. There were a few guys with blue sweat shirts. I thought maybe they were some kind of gang or something until I figured out that FFA stood for Future Farmers of America.

Here I was, a cool stud, in a field of geeks and I was being avoided like the plague. The guys, who did notice me, looked at me like I belonged in a side show. Fortunately my last period teacher was in charge of monitoring the bus I needed to take home. He told me how to tell which bus and watched for me to make sure I got on. There must have been fifteen buses. It was a good thing he was there. I would have gotten on the wrong bus for sure. He even made sure the driver knew all about me. The driver knew where the house was and stopped right at our driveway. I was home by three.

Mom was there to greet me as I came in. She pumped me about school while she put a roast in for dinner. I went up to change clothes. I really didn’t want to stand around and answer questions, so I stayed upstairs. I told mom that I had a lot of homework to do. The truth was I didn’t even have my books yet so I was exempt from homework. I spent my time exploring the boxes of Lucy’s clothes in the next room. I didn’t put anything on, but I did help myself to a nightgown and some panties. I hid them in the closet. I decided to see what was in the attic. I opened the window in the end and looked around. Mostly, it was junk. Two trunks and a half a dozen boxes. There were also a couple of old fashion lamps and three wooden chairs. I methodically went through the boxes. I found old books and some dishes. I moved a few boxes and discovered some loose floor boards near the chimney. I lifted them and found that there was a small space next to the chimney, about two by three. Cool, a secret hiding place. I climbed down in; there were some boards in the wall that slipped around. I found out I could take some of them out. They were cedar. I was looking right into Lucy’s closet. There were enough removable that I could crawl through. I was out in her room when I looked out the window and could see her coming down the driveway. I quickly went back through the closet and replaced the boards. I struggled back up into the attic and went to my room. I had to change clothes again because of all the dust and cobwebs I had encountered. I was surprised to see that it was nearly 5:00.

It turned out that I was on start of my bus route and she was on the end of hers. That was cool. Maybe tomorrow I could get in a little time in a dress. At least on the farm, I could go outside. I sure couldn’t do that in the city. But here, the house was far enough off the road so that passing cars couldn’t see unless they stopped right in front of the driveway.

The bummer was that I was on the start of my bus route on the way to school. That meant that I a two hour ride to school. I had to be out on the highway at 5:30. Roosters don’t get up that early. When I got home Tuesday, I was so tired that I lay down and took a nap. So much for some time in a dress. On Wednesday, I packed a fried egg sandwich for breakfast on the bus. I slept in an extra half an hour because I didn’t have to eat breakfast. When I got on the bus I curled up in the seat behind the driver and went to sleep. The noise of the kids getting off the bus woke me. I ate my sandwich on the steps and went to class. I still was tired when I got home. I took a nap again. This time I was awake before mom got home. By Thursday evening, I decided to go to bed earlier and I was able to be alert when I came home.

 

Chapter 4
Home alone

In the other room, I knew exactly what boxes to open. I got a dress and some lingerie. I took them back to my room and put them on. The panties were plain pink with white lace around the legs and waist. The bra was a padded one from a few years ago. It had enough padding that I wouldn’t need anything else. The slip was white with lots of lace. The dress was one of my favorites. It was a pale yellow and had white trim. The sleeves were short and the skirt was long and full. I had two hours to kill, so I went back and got a pair of knee socks and shoes. I went for a walk out to the barn. In the barn, I climb up into the loft and walked a beam to the other side. There was something a little naughty about walking a beam like that in a dress. If anyone had been below, they could have seen my panties. Back in the house, I was careful to change well before Lucy got home.

On Friday I put on a dress and selected a few others I was sure would never be missed along with three pairs of panties, a slip, a bra and pair of flats. I took them to the barn, put them in a garbage bag and hid them across from the hay loft. I thought that at least I could always have a stash. I was sure that they wouldn’t be missed, because they were the same ones I had taken out of my hiding place in the attic of our old house before we moved. I had them there for six months before that and Lucy never said anything. I’m sure, that with all the old clothes she had, she forgot all about these.

Today, I walked down to the pond and back. That was the longest I had ever been outside. At the old house, once, at night, I did go out the side door on the garage and back in the patio door at the back of the house. But that was a trip taken at a pace that was just short of a run. It was thrilling because of the chance of getting caught. Out here, it was different. I was able to take it easy and enjoy the light breeze that tickled my legs under the dress and blew my longish hair. It was an entirely satisfying experience.

Of course Saturday mom was home and we went to work again. It seemed that there would be no end to things to do around here. First on the agenda was to move Lucy’s old clothes across the hall. Then we cleaned out the root cellar and took a break for a light lunch. The attic was next. I was afraid that they would discover the loose boards. To avoid that, I volunteered to clean the attic, if mom and Lucy would go through the boxes and dispose of the contents.

So Lucy and I packed the boxes and trunks down to the back porch and I went back to sweep the attic. When I was through, mom had inventoried the things and had dinner ready. Mom told us over dinner that she would make arrangements for a charity to pick up the things from the attic. Lucy wanted to go over to visit one of her new girl friends from school on Sunday. At least one of us had made some new friends here. The guys at school were still avoiding me. I guess I’d have to get some geek clothes to fit in.

Mid-morning, mom took Lucy to her friend's house and told me to stay out of trouble while she was gone. She was going to run in to town and pick up a few things at the mall. As soon as they were out of the driveway, I went into Lucy’s room and helped myself to her clothes. I was confident that there was plenty of time so I took my time and picked out my most favorite things. The panties were powder blue. They had a triangle of lace down each side seam, across the leg openings. The bra was a lacy pushup. If I fastened it tight and shortened the straps, I could look like there was the start of boobs in it. The slip was the same color as the panties. It had lace all across the top and at the hem. I decided on a skirt and blouse. The white blouse buttoned up the front with hidden buttons. It had ruffles all down the front. The sleeves were long and had ruffled lace and elastic at the cuff. The skirt was light blue and pleated. I particularly liked the way it swished around my legs. I chose a pair of blue silk socks with a lacy cuff and a pair of black flats.

It was a nice day out so I decided to walk down to the pond again. I really didn’t think I was there very long. I leisurely strolled back around the end of the barn and started toward the side door of the house.

 

Chapter 5
Caught

I was in the very worst spot I could have been in when mom’s car turned into the drive way. I was right in the middle of the drive way. It was fifteen feet to the back of the house and twenty feet to the side door. I froze as mom stopped short and just stared at me. I was like a frightened fawn, only I wasn’t going to fade into the back ground.

Recovering slightly, I turned and headed toward the back door. Mom parked the car quickly and yelled at me. "Where do you think you’re going?” I stopped and turned to face her. She got out of the car and walked over to me. She stopped a few feet in front of me and just looked me up and down, shaking her head. Finally, she said. "What are you doing in that outfit?"

Shaking, I stared at the ground. "I … I … I just wanted to see what it felt like," I said.

"Lucy would be incensed if she found out you were getting into her clothes. You march inside and put those clothes right back where you found them. You had better get them back good enough Lucy won’t notice. If she says anything to me about them being disturbed you won’t like the punishment I’ll dream up. When you’re in your OWN clothes you come help me get the things out of the trunk."

I couldn’t believe it. I had been caught. Mom was really angry. I knew I’d be punished, but not knowing how made it hell. I stalled as long as I could. I finally came and got the car keys from mom. There were four bags in the trunk.

I spent the rest of the day being mom’s assistant while she made curtains. I cut fabric and generally fetched and carried for her all afternoon. By 4:00 we had some nice curtains up. Mom made me go with her to pick up Lucy. On the way I got a stern lecture about respecting privacy. She ended up by telling me that I would be grounded till the end of the month. It was a slap on the wrist. I still hadn’t made any friends so what was the big deal. I might just as well have been grounded since we moved here anyway. The only thing that hurt was that I wouldn’t be allowed to stay at home alone for the same time. I didn’t get into Lucy's clothes for the rest of the month. The second week in May, I did indulge a little. I didn’t go outside. It was raining most days anyway. I slept in a nightgown every night for a week.

Mom had been working on her solution since the day she caught me. Mom maneuvered Lucy into thinking that she was the one asking for locks on our doors. I came home one day and there was a locksmith truck in the driveway the locksmith was just coming out of the house. "Hi," he said. "The bedrooms are all locked. The keys are in the box like your mom said.” I went inside and on the dining room table was metal box with a combination lock on it. I shook it and something rattled inside. The door knobs on mom's bedroom were brand new and had key slots in them. Upstairs, the bedroom doors all had new knobs with locks. I tried mine. They were locked. Both of them. Lucy’s likewise. Downstairs I tried mom’s. They were locked as well. Great, I couldn’t even get into my own room. This was all mom’s idea. She didn’t tell Lucy why, but she led the way to where we all deserved our privacy. Well, if she thought she would keep me from dressing up, she was highly mistaken. There was always my stash in the barn. I went straight to the barn and climb up to the loft. I changed into the green dress. I came down and opened the barn door. It was raining so I didn’t go out but instead, I enjoyed the feel of the wind on my on legs as it came in the door. I spent about an hour walking around the barn. Finally, I climbed up the loft and walked the beam.

I was in the house when Lucy came home and watching television. What she didn’t know was that I was wearing a pair of her panties. My secret. It was really a joke on mom. She thought she had made it impossible for me to indulge in the feminine but I had outsmarted her. It gave me pleasure to be wearing panties while I sat at the dinner table. I got my key to my bedroom and immediately put it in my dresser. I didn’t need to lock my room.

Then next day, I tried Lucy’s door. It was locked so I decide that wearing the clothes from my stash wasn’t good enough. In the attic, I let myself down in the space by the chimney. I took the boards out of the end of the closet. I stepped into her closet. It was on the end away from the bedroom. Putting the boards back, I let myself into the spare room. I got into the boxes and picked out a dress and lingerie. I got into the right box and found some shoes. Back in my room I dressed myself. The feel of the slip and dress caressing my legs as I went downstairs it was intoxicating. In the bathroom, I borrowed mom’s brush and brushed my hair. I parted it across the front of my head and produced some bangs. The rest I brushed back and over my ears. I tried unsuccessfully to get the ends to flip up. In the kitchen I got an after school snack. I went out on the porch and let the wind blow my skirt around. At the appropriate time, I let myself back into Lucy’s spare room and put the clothes back, just the way I found them. I was sure to lock the door on the way out. The following Sunday, I told mom I was going for a walk. I headed out like I was going to the pond, but as soon as I was out of sight behind the barn, I went back and let myself in through the back doors and got into my stash. I was sure that I could go for a walk in a dress hidden by the barn. Leaving my clothes up in my stash, I slipped out the back doors.

Chapter 6
Caught again

This was great. Mom and Lucy were at home and I was outside in a dress. I guess mom was right. I was going to like living on a farm. I sure couldn’t do this in town. Heck I couldn’t even go outside when they weren’t there. I spent about an hour at the pond. Coming back, I was careful to keep the barn between me and the house. I was walking across the beam when the doors opened I froze. It was mom she was carrying something she took it to the far end of the barn where there was some shelving. I could see it was some boxes. She put them on the shelves. As she turned around, I was about to lose my balance. I shifted my weight a little. Some hay had stuck to my shoes and picked that step to fall. It drifted right down in front of mom. She stopped short and looked up. "Michael James Monroe. You get down here right now.” I was so scared that I almost fell off the beam. It was all I could do to make to the loft. I climbed down the ladder.

Mom’s stare was boring a hole through me. I walked up to her. "Just where did you get those clothes? I know that Lucy’s room is locked."

"Up there," I said pointing to my stash.

"You have some of Lucy’s clothes hidden up there?” I shook my head yes. "How many dresses do you have up there?"

"Ah two."

"How many?"

"Four and some under things."

"You go up and get them all right now.” I was humiliated. Mom watched as I climbed the loft and walked the beam. I know she could see my panties. I gathered up Lucy’s things and my clothes. On the ground, I was commanded to put my clothes back on. Mom held the dresses as I changed my underwear and put on my pants before taking off the dress. I took off the dress and slip, giving them to mom. She shook her head. "Michael, if I catch you at this again, you’ll beg me to stop your punishment. It well be on going until I’m good and ready to stop it. I don’t know what I’m going to do, but you had better believe it will leave a lasting impression on you.” She carefully wrapped the clothes into a small package and tucked it under her arm. "For now, you go to your room and stay there. I will expect you to confine yourself in your room for the rest of the month. I’ll tell Lucy that I caught you climbing the rafters in the barn. That will explain why you’re being punished."

I was defiant. The very next day, I sneaked into Lucy’s room through the attic and snatched some things. If mom thought I’d be that easy to stop, she was sadly mistaken. I found some boards in my closet that were loose and hid my stash back there. I would gladly spend my time in my room. With the door locked I could be assured that I would always have time to change. I started sleeping in a nightgown every night. I buried it in Lucy’s hamper and took another one each week. She had two that were almost identical and I just traded between them.

I have to admit that I didn’t stay in my room like mom said. I was just sure to be in there by the time Lucy came home from school. I still enjoyed walking out to the barn when I was sure it was safe. The weekends were another thing all together. I stayed in my room. Mom would call me out to come for meals and I would return immediately thereafter.

For the first time in my life I was dreading the end of school. Mom had not rescinded my house arrest. That would mean that I would literally be "confined to quarters" as they said in the Star Trek movies. School was out on June 7th. I was home before Lucy as usual. I was enjoying myself in the backyard when I heard a car in the driveway. I quickly dashed into the house and up the stairs. I barely cleared the top of the stairs when I heard the door open. "Thanks," I heard Lucy call out. The door slammed and I heard Lucy start up the stairs. I closed my door. She came right to my room and tried the knob before I could lock it. "Mike, you were out of your room weren’t you?" she demanded stopping short when she saw how I was dressed. "You little sneak. I thought some things were missing. You’ve been getting into my things for a long time haven’t you?” I hung my head and shook it yes. "Well congratulations. You aren’t confined to your room any more. At least not until mom gets home. Give me the key to your room," she demanded. I took it out of my dresser and handed it to her. "Now little Michelle,C she said smiling, "why don’t you go watch some television.” She continued with an acid tone in her voice that said, ”I’m going to really enjoy this when mom gets home." She locked the door. I wouldn’t be changing clothes before mom came home.

Mom came home right on time. I was in front of the TV, but I wasn’t watching it. Lucy met mom at the door. "Hi mom. I’ll bet you didn’t know you had a daughter name Michelle," she said stepping back with a sweeping motion of her hand in my direction.

"Michael! I warned you, didn’t I? Well you just sit there while I figure out what to do."

"You warned him? You knew about this?"

"It’s a long story. Come into the kitchen while I get dinner. I’ll fill you in.” They went into the kitchen. I stayed put as directed. About an hour later, mom called me. "Michelle, come to dinner.” Oh great, now she was calling me Michelle. It was really weird I was sitting at the table in my sisters clothes. Mom and Lucy acted like there was nothing wrong. We just ate dinner. Mom and Lucy had their usual dinner conversation. They even asked me a few direct questions, which I answered with one word answers. After dinner, mom looked at me and said. "Well, Michelle I believe it’s your turn to do the dishes.” They got up and went into the living room and closed the sliding doors. I cleared the table and washed the dishes.

 

Chapter 7
Punishment

When I was through, mom and Lucy were watching television in the living room. I walked in. They hardly noticed I was there. Finally I said "Now what?"

Mom looked up. "Sit down and watch television.” I did. Nothing more was said; until mom wanted coffee. "Michelle, would you be a dear and get me a cup of coffee.” Except for the name, nothing unusual there. She often asked me to get her coffee. At 11:00 the news came on. "Well, it’s time for me to go to bed," Mom said. "You girls don’t stay up too late.” With that, she went to her room.

After about a half an hour, Lucy got up. "Goodnight Michelle, I’m going to bed too.” She trotted up stairs leaving me in the room by myself. I wondered into the kitchen. The light was off and there was no light coming under mom's door.

I turned off the television and lights. In my room, I opened my dresser to get out some pajamas. There weren’t any there. There were nightgowns. In the next drawer there were panties and bras. I opened another drawer there were slips, in another there were girl's socks and tights. I went to the closet. I didn’t have any boy's clothes. My closet was full of dresses that Lucy couldn’t bear to throw away. I was tired. I undressed and put on a nightgown.

In the morning, I stayed in bed until hunger drove me out. I opened my drawer and was surprised that last night wasn’t a dream. I took off the nightgown and changed panties. I went to my closet and searched for some pants. Even girls pants. My heart raced at the thought of purposely putting on a dress and going downstairs. Mom had left for work, but Lucy was there. Last night was just too weird. Neither mom nor Lucy acted like anything was unusual. I was sure that was because mom was there to moderate the situation. I knew that Lucy would be on my case all day.

With hunger driving me, I broke down and put on a long skirt and long sleeve blouse. After working myself up to the inevitable, I tiptoed down the stairs. Lucy was not in the living room. I went into the kitchen and got a bowl of cereal and set down at the table. I heard the toilet flush and Lucy came out of the bathroom. I ate my cereal in silence, waiting for the first barbed attack. She passed up her first opportunity. After breakfast, I rinsed my bowl and went to the living room ready for the show down. As I walked in, Lucy looked up. "Michelle, you’re not wearing a bra. I don’t think mom would like that. When I was your age, she was very adamant about it. ‘Respectable young ladies don’t go braless.’ She always insisted on it. If I were you, I’d go up and put one on right now."

"I don’t understand what happened to my clothes?"

"Your clothes? Aren’t they in your room?"

"No! My closet is full of your old clothes. And so is my dresser."

"Well, I’m afraid that the fate of a little sister, you have to wear hand-me-downs. Maybe next year, mom can afford to buy you some new clothes of your own."

"No!! I mean what happened to my old clothes?"

"Well, you don’t have anyone to hand them down to now do you?"

I gave up. I went back to the dining room and sat at the table. Just then the phone rang. Lucy answered it. "Oh hi mom.

"Yeah she’s up.

"A long skirt and a blouse.

"Well, she’s not wearing a bra. I could tell from behind if she was.

"That’s what I told her.

"OK.

"Michelle, mom wants to talk to you."

I took the phone. "Hello?"

"Michelle, your sister tells me that you’re not wearing a bra. Respectable young ladies don’t go braless. She also tells me she could tell that from the back, when you were sitting at the table. If that’s the case, you also need to be wearing a slip. I want you to go up and put those things on right this minute. Understand?"

"Yes ma’am," I said dejectedly.

"Now let me talk to Lucy."

"Lucy, here," I said handing her the phone. I went up and did as I was told. When I came back down, Lucy was smiling.

"Mom said I should show you how to fix your hair. You were looking pretty bad last night.” With that, she ushered me into the bathroom. She turned me toward the mirror. "Now watch what I’m doing. I don’t intend to be your slave. I will expect you to be able to do this for yourself tomorrow. First, you brush it all out like this," she told me, brushing my hair with a vengeance. "Then you take the comb and back comb it like this. It’s also called teasing it.” She took the comb and held up a part of it and combed it backward from the tip toward my head. After she did that all over, she sprayed it with hair spray. "Then you style it.” She took the brush and just kind of smoothed it a little sometimes curling a part around her finger and brushing it with quick strokes. When she was through, she sprayed it all over again.

"Let’s do your nails.” She took me out to the table and put some junk she called cuticle remover on my nails right where they went under my skin. She let that sit for a while and then removed it. When it came off, it took that little flat piece of skin with it. Then using a wooden tool, she pushed the skin way up my fingernails. Then she painted red polish on my right hand. "Here she said, you do the other one.” I took the brush and tried my left thumb. It wasn’t as easy as it looked. She stopped me and wiped my mistakes away when I made them. It took me four times longer to do my left than it did her to do my right. "Now sit there and let them dry.” It was cool; I had never worn nail polish before. I liked the way it looked. After about a half an hour, she came in and told me it was dry. "Go up and put some shoes on. Mom said you could get the mail."

This was too, too weird. Mom said I could get the mail? I began to think that I shouldn’t argue. My fate was out of my hands. Either this was some sort of eerie dream, or I had slipped into some alternate universe somewhere. One where a boy in girl's clothes was nothing unusual. I came down wearing a pair of black flats. Lucy met me at the door.

"It’s raining, you had better wear this," she said handing me her old rain coat, "and if you want to save your hairdo, you’d better carry an umbrella.” She continued as I put on the coat. By the time I got it buttoned, she handed me a pink umbrella. I stepped out on the porch and put up the umbrella. The rain was one of those light spring rains. The sun was shining right through it. I walked the length of the driveway to the mailbox. The rain stopped as I took the mail out. So I closed the umbrella and hooked the strap over my wrist. On the way back, I noticed the root cellar doors had the new combination lock on them. Back in the house I hung the coat in the closet and stood the umbrella in the corner. I put the mail on the dining room table.

I stood in the door and watched Lucy from behind. I still didn’t trust her. I was sure that at any moment I would get a stinging insult about being a sissy or maybe gay. I didn’t think I was gay. If I was, I sure didn’t show it any other way. I mean girls really looked good to me. Would a gay guy spend so much time trying to get a glimpse up girl's skirts as I had on the school bus all last year? Timidly, I went in and sat on the easy chair and began to watch TV.

"Michelle, you really should learn to keep your legs together. You won’t always be wearing a long skirt. If you make it a habit of keeping them together even when you don’t have to, you won’t forget and let them drift apart when you shouldn’t. Mom will tell you that proper young ladies sit up straight and keep their legs together." I looked down. My knees were about a foot apart. I put them together.

 

Chapter 8
Explanations

Mom showed up about 5:30 as usual. She asked me to help her fix dinner, since Lucy helped yesterday. I went in and peeled potatoes, while she got the fish ready to broil. Mom had never asked me to help with dinner before, although, I did take my turn at doing the dishes. Mom told me how to cut up the potatoes and put them on to boil. By the time I was done she had the fresh asparagus ready to be steamed. She took care to see that I understood just what part of the asparagus was to be trimmed off and thrown away. She put them into the steamer.

When the potatoes were done she showed me how to mash them with an electric beater. We had dinner on the table at 6:15. I really didn’t have time to think about how I was dressed while we were fixing dinner, but when I sat down to eat, I was immediately aware of it. As I reached for the potatoes I noticed my nails. That wasn’t normal. I had never had worn nail polish before. I looked down at my chest. There, as plain as the nose on my face, concealed only by the thin cloth of my blouse, was a pair of boobs. I could see the lace on the slip right through the fabric. Normally I would like that, but not with mom right there. I didn’t enjoy the dinner as much as I might. This whole scene was just plain strange. Every time mom had seen me in a dress before, she was mad. Now here she was treating me as if it was as normal as apple pie.

After dinner, Lucy went to do the dishes. Mom and I went to watch television. During the station break the whole thing just burst out of me. "Mom what’s going on?"

"Excuse me? I’m sure you understand about station breaks."

"Where are my clothes?"

"Your closet is full of clothes."

"Those are Lucy’s old clothes."

"Well dear, a lot of girls have to wear their sister's hand-me-downs."

"Mom, I mean my regular clothes, you know pants. Like jockey shorts or jeans? The ones I wore to school?"

"Sit down dear." I hadn’t even realized that I stood up. "Since you’ve been caught in your sister's clothes three times in the last three months. I might add that you even included underwear. It’s obvious that wearing girl's clothes is more than a passing fancy. Your sister told me that it might be fun to have a sister for a while. Since your hair is long enough to be a girl’s, we decided that you we would give you your fill. So while you were doing dishes last night, we moved your clothes to the root cellar. And filled your closet with Lucy’s old clothes."

"When will I get my real clothes back?"

"I’m not sure. A week, a month or when I think you have had enough. Until then, you will dress like a girl and we will treat you like a girl. You’ll learn that being a girl isn’t just putting on some clothes for a cheap thrill."

Just then Lucy came in from the kitchen. I let the conversation drop. It was clear things were going to be strange for who knows how long. In the morning, I woke up early. I lay in bed with misgivings about the day. It was Saturday. Mom would be here all day. Last night she had made it clear that for the next whatever, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to wear pants. Normally, when I put on dresses I choose the most feminine thing available. From the sexiest panties to the most feminine skirt. Sometimes, I even liked to show a little leg. But somehow, with mom there, I really didn’t feel comfortable about the whole thing.

As the faint glow of sunrise became full daylight, filling my room with light, I got out of bed and lifted the shade to see what kind of day it was going to be. The sky was blue and cloudless. The sun, low in the eastern sky, cast my shadow on the floor. I was taken by how sexy it looked. There, in sharp relief, was the silhouette of my nightgown; within that, was the darker silhouette of my body. I moved and watched the translucent shadow of my nightgown swirl around my body. It pleasured me beyond words to know that was my shadow. I wished I had a full length mirror like Lucy. I’d like to see this in the mirror. I turned sideways and noticed the roundness of my bust. I had worn the bra to bed. I remembered the bathroom had a full length mirror. I rummaged in my closet and came up with a light cotton robe.

Wrapping it around me I headed for the bathroom. I needed to go anyway. In the bathroom I first emptied my bladder taking great pains to be as girl like as I could. I pulled my panties down only to my knees and sat, hiking my nightie and robe up. After I tinkled I carefully stood and lifted my panties in place. Then I took off the robe and stood before the mirror. As I surveyed the reflection I couldn’t help but smile. It was every bit as enticing as the shadow had been. Only in the reflection, I could make out the outline of the panties and bra. I turned sharply and watched the bottom of the gown swirl about my legs. I enjoyed the intoxicating feeling as the silky material swept around me. I decided to enjoy this whole thing. Actually, it was a dream come true. I’m sure that mom wanted me to OD on girls clothes. Maybe I would, but I was going to enjoy it as long as I could.

I brushed out my hair before I left the bathroom. Feeling naughty, I put on the robe and neglected to tie it. Flushing the toilet as I left, I swept through the house, the robe billowing behind me. Coming into the dining room, I met mom. Before I could react she said, "Good morning Michelle. That nightgown looks good on you."

I stopped short, feeling like I had been caught. "Ah, thanks," I said looking down at myself.

"I feel like pancakes this morning, how about you?"

"Yeah, that sounds good."

"Well get dressed and I’ll whip some up. Why don’t you wake Lucy it would be nice to have breakfast with my two girls."

"OK," I said as I self-consciously continuing on, pulling the robe around me a little. I found my heart racing a little as I slowly climbed the stairs. "That was neat," I thought. "Mom saw me in the nightgown. I wonder what she really thought. It must be harder on her than it is on me. Trying to act as if everything is normal, while looking at your son parading around in his sister's clothes, underwear and all. She must have seen the outline of my panties just as I did in the mirror. Well, I’ll just be as feminine as I can from here on out."

 

Chapter 9
Feminine is as feminine does

That decision made, I knocked on Lucy’s door. "Lucy," I called. "Mom is fixing pancakes for breakfast and she wants to have breakfast with both of us."

"Uh, OK," a sleepy voice answered from behind the door.

In my room, I picked out a sun dress with spaghetti straps. It was blue and white striped. The skirt hit me at the knee and was very full. I was sure that there was a strapless bra in the drawer. I found it. It didn’t have as much padding as I might have liked, so I added a pair of socks to each cup. Though I didn’t need it, I put on a half-slip, making sure that it was just barely was hidden by the dress. I wanted to be sure the a little lace would show if I had cause to do anything that would lift the dress. Using the streaming sun light as my mirror, I stood in front of the window so that the climbing shaft of light shone on my knees. I reached up. I had to adjust it three times so that the lace just barely cast its shadow under the dress. Perfect! Mom was going to have a very feminine daughter this morning.

I fairly skipped down the stairs. Mom was in the kitchen with a steaming stack of pancakes growing on the counter. "I’ll set the table mom," I said reaching up into the cupboard to get the plates.

Mom turned her head and said. "Why thank you Michelle.” She glanced down at my legs and smiled. I was back to get glasses reaching into the cupboard once more.

As I did, I said, "It’s gorgeous day out today," calling moms attention to me again.

"It certainly is dear," she replied.

I was back for the silverware I was sorry I didn’t have to reach up for it. I really would have liked to show off the slip again.

"That’s a nice dress on you dear. It’s sure to be warm today. I think you’ll be glad of your choice," Mom told me as I gathered the utensils. As she stood looking at me, her comment gave me a brainstorm.

"Thank you," I said, gathering my skirt and doing a curtsy. As I did, I was sure to pull the hem up two inches. Without looking, I knew the entire lace trim was visible at the hem of slip.

Lucy came down as I was placing the silverware on the table. Mom brought in the pancakes, butter and syrup. We sat down to breakfast. Lucy wanted to go to town, to take in a movie with a friend from our old neighborhood. Mom agreed that after we did the dishes she would take her. "… Since we don’t have to worry about leaving someone alone." She had added looking at me with a smile. I blushed. Lucy and I cleared the table and I volunteered to do the dishes so that Lucy could get going. I bent down to get the dish soap as Lucy came in with the second load.

"You know when you bend over like that, your slip shows."

"So? I’ve seen the same thing when you wear a skirt or dress. I’ve even seen that on mom."

"I just thought you’d like to know."

"Well thanks, but I guess it goes with the territory."

Lucy laughed. "You got that right. At least you don’t have a little brother getting a perverted kick out of seeing it," she said as she went back.

After I finished the dishes, I decided to push the envelope I went for a walk down to the pond. I secretly hoped that mom would get back while I was still out there. I sat on a rock and threw pebbles in the water until that got profoundly boring. I made my way slowly back. I was disappointed when mom’s car wasn’t in the driveway. I sat on the back porch and enjoyed the sunshine.

Out of absolute boredom, I began turning cartwheels in the back of the house. I had always been amazed that when I saw girls do it, that their skirts never fell down. I always thought there was some trick that girls knew that I didn’t. I was wrong. My dress stayed up time after time. Even when I tried to do it slow. When I got tired of that, I was standing near the corner of the barn when a light breeze sprang up. It rustled my skirt and tickled my thighs. I wondered if girls got as much thrill out of this as I did. I loved it.

I heard mom's car turn into the driveway. I ducked around the barn and ran for the path. Once there, I turned and walked back toward the house mom was just getting out of the car when I came in view. I waved, she waved back. She went inside. I went to the back porch and let myself in. Becoming aware of pressure in my bladder, I went into the bathroom and did a very feminine rendition of relieving it. Standing at the mirror, I touched up my hair and then spying mom’s perfume, decided to push it again. She had given Lucy carte blanche to use it anytime she wanted to. So I sprayed a little behind each ear.

In the living room mom commented. "It’s a gorgeous day for a walk. Where did you go?"

"Aw, I just went down to the pond. It’s really nice down there. You should see it."

"Well maybe we should pack a picnic lunch and eat it down there."

Lunch was light, just some ham sandwiches and a thermos of chicken noodle soup. We sat out for the pond. I've got to tell you it made me feel really strange to be outside in a dress walking next to my mother. I carried the picnic basket and mom carried a blanket. At the pond, mom spread the blanket and I knelt down to set out the dishes and sliver. Sitting on the blanket, mom admonished me. "Pull your dress down a little. Your slip is showing. You need to get used to watching out for that." I complied. "Good, before you know it all that kind of stuff will be second nature to you."

 

Chapter 10
Revelations and adventures

As we ate, I got brave again. "Mom, why did you decide to punish me this way?"

"Well, all the traditional punishments weren’t working. I grounded you. I locked your dress source away from you as well as I could and you got around that even though you were supposed to be grounded to your room. But what tipped the scales was Lucy said she would gladly trade you for a sister. I had to laugh when she said that. I told her that at least that way; it would be OK for you to wear her old clothes. That’s when it hit me. Since we couldn’t convince you that you shouldn’t do it, we would see how you’d like it when you couldn’t do anything else. I think you’re having fun now. But I’m betting that it won’t be long before you get tired of it and want to wear boy's clothes again.” She paused, getting serious and asked, "Do you have any idea why you want to dress up in your sister's clothes?"

"No, it just feels good."

"Do you want to be a girl?" I could see the concern in her eyes.

"No, I like being a boy. I just like to wear dresses sometimes."

"Why did you do it to start with?" she asked curiously. I told her about running out of underwear and then pajamas. I left out that I had tried pajamas first and not liked it. I went straight from the panties to the nightgown. "After that, one thing led to another and I began wearing everything," I finished.

"You started just after the divorce? Oh wow. I knew I was pretty irresponsible when it came to the house work, but I didn’t think anyone actually ran out of clothes. I’m sorry honey.” I thought she was going to soften altogether, but I was wrong. But I could see the guilt in her eyes.

When we got back to the house, the phone was ringing. Lucy needed a ride home. It turned out that her friends had to take the bus home and she was left alone at the mall. Mom brushed my hair and asked me if I’d like to take a ride. "Lucy will be waiting outside. We’ll just pull up and she’ll get in. You won’t have to get out."

My heart raced as I agreed. I rode in the back seat. We didn’t want to confuse Lucy who didn’t know I’d be coming. Lucy was surprised to see me, but thought it was neat. "Too bad we’re in our old neighborhood where someone could recognize us. You look good enough we could take you for a walk in the mall.” Then she began tell mom all about the movie.

The week went by fast. Mom was right. All the girl things; keeping my legs covered, keeping my knees together and brushing my hair into a feminine style were all second nature. Saturday was here before I knew it. I was totally immersed in being Michelle. It no longer seemed strange to be in the same room as mom while I was wearing a dress. I did the laundry and felt good about it. After all, I had been wearing a third of the lingerie and dresses I washed.

On Sunday, it was really warm. About 3:00 Lucy said. "It’s so warm, I think I’d like to go down to the pond and check out this awesome swimming hole you raved about, Michelle."

"I don’t think I like you going swimming alone," Mom told her.

"Well, I have a spare swimsuit Michelle could wear. She could go with me."

Mom thought about it for a minute. "It is nice and private down there. It would be OK I guess," Mom allowed. Lucy and I went up to her spare room and began going through the boxes. Shortly I had my choice of three suits. I chose a yellow one with crossover straps that buttoned on either side at the waist. It also had a pleated white skirt. I really liked the way it looked. Lucy pinned a couple of pads in at the chest so my bust line wouldn’t suffer. I put it on and grabbed a towel. Lucy stopped me and suggested that I put my hair in a ponytail just like hers.

I was relieved. I thought that I wouldn’t be able to swim as long as this punishment lasted. With no end of it in sight, that would have been cruel and unusual punishment. At the pond, I jumped right in and swam to the rope. I reached up and grabbed it and swung it toward the shore. Lucy waded it out and grabbed it. She took it back to the base of the tree and stepped up on a root and swung out and dropped off. I grabbed it on the back swing and climbed up into the tree. Positioning myself just right I jumped on the rope with my feet on the knot and waited until the very highest point before I jumped.

It was every bit as good as I had hoped. Well over fifteen feet. I coaxed Lucy to try it from the tree. She wouldn’t go as high as I did, but she got out quite a ways anyway. We splashed each other and swam around. We raced each other across the pond and back.

 

Chapter 11
Unexpected visitors

We were sunning ourselves on our towels when Lucy bet me that I couldn’t swim across the pond under water. I took the challenge. Diving in, I ducked under and began to swim. I knew it was a long ways so I concentrated on making each stroke count this was for distance not speed. When I surfaced on the far side I turned and faced Lucy. I was horrified. Lucy was talking to two girls. Where did they come from? She looked at me and shouted, "Hey Michelle, come on back and meet our neighbors.” I didn’t know what to do; they were wearing swimsuits too. It was obvious they intended to swim. I had to get back to our side of the pond to get home. This was too much. Lucy was determined to embarrass me. "Come on Michelle. What are you waiting for?” I couldn’t stall. All I could do is hope that I looked as good to them as I did to me. I slowly swam back across the pond. I was careful to see that the skirt didn’t cling when I got out of the water. "Cindy, Karin, this is my cousin Michelle. We traded her for my brother this summer. Michelle, meet Cindy and Karin.

Cindy was the older she was about Lucy’s age and Karin was my age. Their last name was Larson. As we talked we learned that each of them was a year younger than we were. Karin would be in middle school next year and Cindy would be in high school. That was good. Karin hadn’t been at school at all and Cindy, as an eighth grader wouldn’t have paid any notice the new sixth grade boy. Neither of them seemed to notice anything unusual about me. They each took a turn at the rope swing. I pointed out to Lucy that Cindy climbed to the same limb I did. Even Karin went higher than Lucy had. We finished out the afternoon having a good time. It was different swimming with girls as a girl. If I had been in a boy’s suit, I would have tried to impress them. As I think about it they probably wouldn’t have been much impressed. This way I didn’t want them to pay to close attention to me so I didn’t go up as high as I did before when we were alone. I had to climb the tree more carefully so I wouldn’t show my crotch. All in all, things went without incident with one minor exception. When Karin was climbing up to the swing, something fell out of the tree and went down the front of Cindy’s swimsuit between her boobs. Cindy just peeled off the straps and pulled it down to her waist. Shaking it out and brushing it off then she pulled it back up. That was the first time I had seen a girls boobs full out. I was impressed. Fortunately, she never looked up. Lucy poked me in the ribs when she noticed me staring.

On the way back to the house Lucy was beside herself. "Little sister, you’d better learn to keep your cool if you’re going to be around other girls. We do that kind of thing all the time." I began to blush.

"Remember, I am a boy, no matter what I wear, or how I look. Not only that, it wasn’t exactly my idea to be around other people. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t really my idea to wear girl's clothes."

"It wasn’t? Tell me again how mom happened to make it a requirement that you wear girl's clothes."

"I mean all the time. I’m not so sure that we should have hung around with Cindy and Karin. I mean the way you put it, they are expecting me to be Michelle all summer."

"How long do you think you’ll be Michelle?"

"I don’t know. Until mom says I can stop."

"What did she say about that?"

"I don’t know… something like until she thinks I’ve had enough. Whatever that means."

"I think it means until after you’ve asked repeatedly and gotten all frustrated asking to quit."

"Yeah, that’s what she probably meant."

"How long will that take?” I looked at her and shrugged. "I think this punishment is going to back fire. From what I’ve seen, you’re really into this. It’s scary for you sometimes, but you like it all the time. I think that mom will have to relent and let you quit to go to school. She forgot, you don’t have any friends around here that you can run off and have fun with.

"You’re still too young to drop off at the mall alone to meet your old friends like I do. What else is there for you to do? You need to do something to amuse yourself. You chose dressing up in my clothes before mom did. It would be another thing all together if you had never wanted to do it in the first place. I think this punishment is more like a reward. Am I right?"

"Well, yeah, I guess you are. I know I was sure scared when I came up on the other side of the pond and saw Cindy and Karin standing there. I almost waded out and ran. The only thing that stopped me was I would have had to run away from the house. I was shaking when you introduced me. But when I saw them accept me as a girl my heart was racing. It was like getting high.

"You know, I’ve never just played around and had a good time with girls before. I was always trying to impress them. I mean, you know, show off. Make them think I was cool. But today was different. I wasn’t trying to prove anything. I just wanted to be accepted. I really had fun and I think they liked me."

"I think so too. Cindy was telling me that Karin doesn’t have any friends that live close. That’s the bummer about living in the country. If you want to go see a friend from school you have to make plans, because like as not, you’ll need a ride to see them. And if that’s the case you can’t just drop by for half an hour. You want to spend the day, because your ride won’t want to go hang around for all that time. They for sure don’t want to make two trips in a half an hour.

"When they were walking up, Cindy said, Karin was excited to see you because you looked like you were her age. I think she looked disappointed to find out you were only here for the summer. I’ll bet she’ll be the closest thing to a best friend you’ll have till the end of school next year."

"You think that we’ll see them when we go swimming next time?"

"You can bet on it. Cindy said they almost live it the pond during the summer."

"I’m really afraid that they will notice that the swim suit doesn’t fit right down here," I said lifting the skirt.

"I see what you mean. That area should be nearly flat. I think I have something that will help. Remind be in the morning and we’ll see what we can do."

We walked in silence until we rounded the barn. "Ah, what are we going to tell mom about Cindy and Karin?"

"The truth that they came along and surprised us and then we stayed and swam with them. Only I think we had better leave out the part about Cindy getting the bark chip down her suit. Mom might come more unglued than you did," she laughed. She could say it was the truth that we were surprised, but I don’t believe her. I’m sure that she saw them coming and decided to put me in the position of having to pretend to be a girl in front of other people. I know that she got some perverse pleasure out of seeing me squirm.

 

Chapter 12
Bringing Mom up to speed

Mom had dinner just about done. Lucy and I went up and changed. I put on clean panties, a pushup bra, a slip and a skirt and blouse. I added knee socks and a pair of flats. I went to the bathroom and joined Lucy brushing out my hair.

Mom was taken aback when she heard that we weren't alone at the pond. "Are you sure that neither of them thought he wasn’t a girl?"

"Take my word for it mom; they thought he was a girl. 100% girl. Not even for an instant did they think he might even be anything but a girl."

"Well just the same, I’m not sure that he should go swimming down there again."

"Well, OK, but I really didn’t know what to say when they showed up. I mean we didn’t expect to see anyone at the pond. I thought it would be best to explain what happened to Mike, just in case they knew about Mike from school or something. I kind of introduced him as my cousin Michelle and told them we had traded my brother for Michelle this summer. I think they got the idea that Michelle was here for the summer. He played the part really well. I know Karin is in need of someone to play with and she took to Michelle like a man in the desert takes to water. If he doesn’t show up at the pond, she’ll come looking for Michelle around here. It would probably cause more problems than it would solve if Michelle quits swimming."

"Do you really think he can fool them?"

"I think he has too."

The next morning after breakfast, I reminded Lucy about my problem with the swimsuit. She took me to her room and gave me pair of stretch panties with something call Lycra in them. They looked too small to even get on. But she assured me that they were the right size. "Try them on and put your swimsuit on and see if it doesn’t turn the trick." I took them to my room I put them on. It was kind of a stretch and they were really confining. I put my swim suit on over them. They didn’t show at all and when I pulled up the skirt and looked down, there wasn’t anything that looked like it didn’t belong there. I went and showed Lucy. "See. I told you," she said.

We went swimming that day. I was a lot more relaxed knowing that there were no tell-tale bulges to be seen. I got to know Karin a lot better. We spent some time on our towels, letting the early summer sun start our tan. She told me that it was good to have a friend her age.

"I just wish it wasn’t just for the summer."

"I know," I told her. "I think that we could become real good friends if we had the time."

She talked about boys and what she liked and didn’t like about them. "I just wish I could meet a boy who didn’t feel like he had to show off all the time. You know what I mean?"

Curiously enough, I did. "Yeah, I feel the same way.” What I meant was that I wished I could meet a girl I felt like I didn’t have to show off for. The problem is, I have and she thinks I’m a girl.

She told me all about her family and how growing up on a farm really limited her social life. Her cousins told her that when she got to high school, that would improve some. There would be a lot more school functions to go to. "I personally can’t wait. All the land for miles around is leased out to big farms. My dad is some kind of manager for them. We are the lucky ones, so he says. All the other property holders leased out the land and moved to the city. I envy the city kids. I have some cousins that live in the city. Whenever we go visit them, I am amazed at how many friends they have. I mean at nine years old, my cousins were going over to visit friends by themselves. Here I am eleven and I have to have my mom visit the mothers of my friends."

I learned that our farm had been the homestead of a family named Jenkins. The house was built where it was because of the unevenness of the slope that ran down to the pond and the general rockiness of the ground. They tried growing apples there, but because of the shallowness of the top soil the yield was never good enough to make a money crop out of it. The youngest son of the original settlers lived in the house until he was no longer able to care for himself. Just last year, his family moved him into a nursing home.

After that, I lived up to my vow. Unless it was raining, I went swimming every day. Karin began calling me and coordinating what time we would go there so we could have as much time together as possible. We shared our secret desires. I found out more about her than any boy should know. I found out that girls aren’t really that much different than boys. They just tend to be more emotional while boys are more practical.

Some of us, however, are emotional. I know I am. But the guys tease you if you let it show at all. I like to watch those movies that the guys all think are yucky. You know where the little kid reunites his family or the family dog saves someone. I even like to see a romance where a woman ends up marrying the man of her dreams and they live happily ever after. I cry sometimes when they’re on, but if you ever say I told you so, I’ll call you a liar to your face. If you insist, I’ll punch you out.

 

Chapter 13
Making friends

It was such a relief to be able to tell someone how I really felt about things like that. Karin let it flow so easily that I had to open up and do the same. By the end of June, I felt closer to Karin than I had anyone since I was old enough to have mom go somewhere without me.

"Are you guys going to see fireworks on the fourth?" Cindy asked as we were sunning ourselves one afternoon.

"I don’t know. Where do they set them off?" Lucy asked.

"Over at Wohunk Lake. It’s a pretty good show. Everybody packs lunch and makes a day of it. We go swimming and maybe someone will take us for a boat ride or maybe even water skiing."

When the idea came up, mom wasn’t too sure about it.

"Well, can you take me and drop me off and then come back and get me?" Lucy wanted to know

"That wouldn’t be practical. I’d have to go and come back. I wouldn’t know just when to come back."

"Oh great. Mike is being punished and I can’t go to the fireworks display. You know, nobody there knows us. Mike passes as Michelle to Cindy and Karin easily. I don’t see why we can’t just go. We could go later in the day and leave as soon as the display is done. If anyone horns in on us, we can give them the same line that I gave Cindy and Karin."

"Do you think it will work?

"Cindy and Karin bought it and they’ve seen Mike, or should I say Michelle several times and up close."

"Oh all right. We’ll go."

We headed for the lake about 2:00 in the afternoon. It was only a fifteen minute ride. Mom thought it was a lot more. She fretted something fierce about who was going to see us for how long. Like an hour one way or another was really going to make a difference. I was up tight, but I knew that if I could get by the first five minutes with everyone I met, I’d fool them for good. I mean either they were going to be sharp enough to have remembered me from somewhere or they weren’t. I wasn’t afraid that I’d do something un-girl or anything. I had been practicing this for nearly a month now and I was confident that if they would accept me as a girl to start that nothing would happen to change their mind in an hour or a week or even a month. Amazingly there were lots of places to watch the fireworks from.

The lake was really a reservoir. The fireworks would be set off from the far side, near the dam. Everyone was lined up along the near side. Mom found us a spot near the middle where there were trees by the bank. I wore "my" swim suit under a light sun dress. A very basic girl outfit. A pair of sandals and a ponytail completed the look of a picnicking pre-teen.

We set out our things on the bank, behind the trees. I think that mom thought we’d hide out there. We hadn’t been there more than a half an hour when someone yelled out from a passing boat. "Hi Lucy! Hi Michelle!” It was Cindy. She and Karin were getting a ride. At their insistence, the driver nosed the boat in to shore. "Hey you guys, you want to take a ride? There’s plenty of room."

"Can we mom?" Lucy asked.

"Well, maybe it would be OK for you, but I’m not sure that Michelle’s mother would think it was such a good idea," Mom answered.

"Maybe I could get out and hang out with Michelle," Karin offered.

"Oh mom, I’m sure that Aunt Ginny wouldn’t mind. You know Uncle Bill is getting a boat next year. They’ve been on lots of test rides. Haven’t you Michelle?"

"Oh yes," I said. Mom saw that Karin would get out and stay around if I didn’t go. I’m sure the thought of having to be around while someone else was there bothered mom so she relented.

"Well OK, but wear your lifejacket."

We went across the lake and got a close up look at the fireworks firing area. There were men hard at work. Then we went to where Cindy and Karin’s parents were. They were only about one hundred yards up the bank. They had been one of the early ones and snagged a table to eat at. The boat had belonged to the owner of Brandon Farms. He was giving rides to all the company employees. We met Cindy and Karin’s mom and dad.

"Mom, dad, this is Lucy and Michelle. Lucy’s mom bought the old Jenkins place."

"Oh yeah," her dad said. "Old man Jenkins kind of let the place get run down. I hope there're no leaks in the roof."

"I don’t think there is," Lucy told him. "It rained pretty hard in May and it didn’t leak then. Mom says that next year we can remodel. We’ll have more money then."

"Where are you girls watching from?" their mom asked.

"Right down there by those trees," Lucy told her.

"Do you have a table?"

"No, we were going to eat on a blanket."

"Why don’t you go down and invite your mother to come share our table."

"Good idea, Lucy," Cindy said. "Let’s go ask her.” Cindy grabbed Lucy’s hand and led the way. Karin and I decided to go swimming. It seemed to take forever, but Cindy and Lucy finally showed up with mom in tow.

Mom was quite nervous meeting their parents. But after we all sat down for dinner, she began to relax as it became clear that no one suspected anything. She began to talk with Cindy and Karin’s parents and struck up quite a friendship. She even got an offer for help with the remodel. We stayed till almost the last family left.

After that Karin began coming over in the mornings. The first time I had to beg off swimming by claiming my suit was in the wash because of getting mud on it the previous day. After that, I was always sure to put my suit on when I got dressed in the morning just in case Karin came over and wanted to swim.

The easier thing was for me to go over to her house in the morning. When she wanted to go swimming I would take off for my house and tell her I’d meet her at the pond. One day, Cindy was clearing out her closet. Karin had plenty of clothes and didn’t particularly want her hand-me-downs. They laid them out on Cindy’s bed in preparation to pack them up for delivery to the Salvation Army.

I couldn’t help but remark that Cindy had some nice clothes to give to charity.

"Do you like them?" she asked

"Oh yes, the blue one is gorgeous.” It had a fitted bodice and a full flaring skirt. The neckline was square cut. She held it up to me.

"It looks like it would fit you. It’s yours if you want it," she told me.

"Really?"

"Sure, take them all if you like."

She did have some really nice things. There was a summer dress that had three quarter sleeves that was all wispy and flowing. No shape really, just extra light, filmy kind of cloth in the general shape of a dress. It would be heaven just to feel the dress on me. She also had some really nice skirts and blouses. There was a short jumper that would show a lot of leg. All in all, there were ten outfits. I took them all.

 

Chapter 14
Summer adventure

For the rest of the summer, not a day went by that Karin and I didn’t see each other. One Saturday Lucy and I were at Karin’s when the idea of going to a movie came up. I was out voted. Everyone else wanted to go. I was scared to really go into town in a dress but I couldn’t get out of it. So Lucy called mom.

"Hi mom, Michelle and I are going to a movie with Cindy and Karin.

"Oh no. I’m sure it’s all right. It was their idea.

"Sure. There’ll be no problem. I have money with me. I’ll spring for Michelle’s ticket.

"Oh mom don’t worry. Cindy and I will keep a good eye on Michelle and Karin. Cindy and Karin go to the movies all the time. Their parents will take us and pick us up.

"The movie will get out about 4:30 and we’ll call for a ride. We’ll just hang out at the mall until her parents get there.

"No not that mall, the South Gate mall.

"I will.” She hung up the phone. "All set. Let’s go."

We got to the mall an hour before the movie started. The girls wanted to browse the mall. I was a little scared, but with Cindy and Lucy along, I didn’t think that anyone would notice a skinny twelve year old in their shadow. At any rate, I didn’t really have a choice. We walked through the mall. I thought it wouldn’t be too bad; we’ll just do a little window shopping. I was sure that no one had any money to buy anything. We went into a store anyway. Cindy picked out a couple of dresses and tried them on. Lucy got into the act. Cindy was on her third outfit when Karin joined the group. There were lots of nice things and I was dying to try them on. A sales clerk caught me holding a dress up to myself and asked. "Would you like to try that on Miss?"

I was startled and blurted out. "Oh could I?” I immediately regretted saying it.

"Certainly. The fitting room is right over there."

"I can’t buy it. I’m here with my friends. I don’t have any money with me."

"Oh that’s all right. If you like the dress, we can hold it for you. You would have three days to come back before we put it back on the rack. Besides I go to lots of shops and try things on for fun, just to see how they’ll look. I couldn’t deny you the same pleasure, now could I?"

I was caught. I had to go try it on. I stepped through the door into the forbidden zone. There were five stalls with doors, two were standing open. I went to the far one. Inside, I closed and locked the door. I took off my dress and tried on the dress I brought in with me. The mirror in the stall was very small I couldn’t get a good look at myself. The girls had all come out and stood in front of the three way mirror in the store. I thought if they think I’m girl enough to come into the fitting rooms, I’m surely girl enough to go look in that mirror.

There was something intoxicating about trying on new dresses. This wasn’t some sneaked pleasure, stolen at someone else’s expenses. This wasn’t the kind of thing that I had to hide. I could just go right out and pick another dress and try it on. I could do it in full view of anyone who happened to be there. I was going back for thirds when Cindy told me that we’d better get back to the theater. There was a real sense of letdown.

The movie ran a little short, so we went back to the mall again. In another shop, I didn’t hang back I was the first in the fitting rooms and the last out. I had tried on three dresses for Karin’s one. In the next shop it was no different. After that shop, Cindy stopped to call her parents.

We hit one more store. It was there that I found a dress that I just fell in love with. It was gorgeous. The top was fitted and had large, loose, bloused sleeves with a button down cuff. The skirt was a two layer affair. The inner layer was opaque satin. It felt like heaven. The outer layer was a gossamer film. It made my sheer nightgown seem as if it were impenetrable steel. I was crestfallen when I looked at the price tag. "$ 59.95" It might as well as been a million dollars. I couldn’t have come up with sixty dollars in ten years.

Later that evening, Lucy and I were on the porch enjoying the sunset. "You were really having a good time in the shops. I think you tried on more things than the rest of us put together," Lucy observed.

"Well, I don’t think it was more than all of you. Maybe more than any two of you put together," I smiled. "Once I got started, I couldn’t help myself. I just couldn’t try them on fast enough. Now I see why girls like to go shopping. Trying on all those different clothes was really exciting."

Lucy laughed. "I don’t think girls get quite the same thrill as you do, but we do like to let our imagination go. We tend to think about guys in general or some guy in particular and how they will react to seeing us in what we’re trying on. Of course we also think about how envious the other girls well be if we have something that makes us look terrific."

I felt a closeness to my sister that I had never felt before. For no reason at all I hugged her and said, "I love you Sis. You’re the best big sister I could have."

"Thank you Michelle. As a little sister, I’ve got to say the same about you. You’re the best little sister I could have."

 

Chapter 15
Mom is clued in

After that, I was at the mall at least every other weekend. To be fair, mom had to take her turn at taking us. One time Cindy wanted to buy a dress after the movie, so she made arrangements to have mom meet us in one of the shops in the mall. It was the same shop that had the dress I had fallen in love with. As we were waiting, I went in search of the dress. It wasn’t where it used to be. So I looked around. I was passing by the clearance rack. The color caught my eye. There was my dress. It had been marked down three times. It was now only twenty-two dollars. I couldn’t believe it. I checked the size. It was the same size. I took it to the fitting rooms I was out at the mirror when mom showed up. She stepped up close to me. "Have you been trying on clothes?" she whispered.

"Yeah, I do it all the time. The sales clerk would think I was weird if I didn’t. All the other girls do it. Isn’t this dress just gorgeous?" I asked changing the subject.

"Well yes it is and it looks great on you too," she observed. Just then Lucy walked up and showed mom the dress she wanted to buy. "Have you tried it on?" mom asked.

"Of course. It fits great."

"How much does it cost?"

"It’s only twenty-two dollars."

"Well that’s good. I was expecting at least twice that."

"Maybe you could buy Michelle the dress she has on," Cindy offered. "I know she’s in love with it. She tries it on every time we come in here and it’s marked down to twenty-two dollars."

"That dress is twenty-two dollars? That’s good price."

"Does that mean you’ll buy it?" Karin asked.

"I should, but… "

"Oh mom why not? It’s been a long time since Michelle had any new clothes," Lucy said. I could see the twinkle in Lucy’s eye. She was having fun at mom's expense. My heart began to race at the thought of having a brand new dress… this dress.

"Well..." mom looked at me. There must have been something in my eyes. She smiled and said, "Oh all right, take it off and I’ll buy it. But since you talked me into it Lucy, it coming out of your school clothes budget." Mom smiled at Lucy exacting revenge for Lucy encouraging this problem.

After we dropped Cindy and Karin off, mom pulled back out on the highway. "I can’t believe I just bought a dress for my son," Mom said to no one in particular, shaking her head.

Later at home as I was hanging up my new dress, Lucy came in. "I really don’t mind the cost of that dress coming out of my clothes budget. It will only cost me one pair of jeans," she smiled. "Besides, it really looks nice on you."

Before we knew it, Labor Day was upon us. Cindy and Karin invited the whole family to join their family at the lake for a picnic. By now mom was good friends with their mom and readily accepted. We swam and boated. (Mr. Larson borrowed the boat from his boss.) I even learned to water ski. It was great fun.

The only downer was that school started the next day. We left early on the pretense that we had to drive into town and exchange Michelle for Michael. Mom took us to a movie. It was cool. My mother was now so comfortable with me in a dress that she actually went with us to the movie.

When we got home mom trimmed my hair back to collar length. It had grown well over my shoulders. Then we went to the root cellar and retrieved my boy’s clothes.

"Mom," I asked, "what are we going to do with my girls clothes?"

"I don’t know Mike. I had thought by now, you would have been begging me to let you wear boy's clothes. But ... you took to dresses like a duck to water. My punishment turned out to be a joke, a joke on me. I realized that when I bought that dress for you. I never thought you would really like wearing dresses that much."

"I’m sorry mom. It surprised me too. I knew I liked wearing dresses, but when you told me that I’d have to wear them until you decided to let me stop, I thought I’d be begging for my pants in a couple of weeks. I have to confess that I set out to make you sorry that you even dreamed up the punishment before I got to that point. But by the time two weeks had passed, I was really into it. After Cindy and Karin became part of the deal, I really liked it. I don’t know what I’m going to do when I see Karin at school. She’s become a good friend. I’ve never known a girl the way I know Karin. We’re… we’re friends, really friends. You know what I mean?"

"Yes Mike, I could tell. Ah, am I right to assume that you haven’t had your fill of dresses?"

"You’re right. I could go on wearing dress except that I need to dress as a boy for school."

"That’s what I thought.” She was quiet for a long time, looking at the ground. "Soul searching, Mike. It’s one of the hardest things I have to do. Truth is, if Michelle were to go away and never come back, I’d… I’d miss her. After the Fourth of July, when I saw for myself how well accepted you were, I really began to enjoy having Michelle around."

I moved my girl's clothes the far side of the closet so it looked like they belonged to the other room and made room in my dresser for my boy's underwear and socks. I carefully removed my nail polish.

I felt really strange at school that week. It had been so long since I wore pants that I couldn’t get used to it. I never noticed how binding they were. Every night when I came home I changed to a skirt. At first, I would change back before Lucy came home and then one night I lost track of time and she caught me. To my surprise she laughed at me.

"Mike, or Michelle, you should make up your mind. One or the other, but please, not half and half," she said.

I decided to test where mom was really at with this. I went up and put on my padded bra and a blouse. In the bathroom I styled my hair I really missed the extra length. I put some barrettes in it and came up with a reasonable girl's style.

When mom came home, she looked at me and smiled. "Well hello Michelle, I was wondering if you’d come visit before summer.” With that, she kissed me on the forehead. I thought everything was cool. I could dress up as Michelle and mom didn’t mind. But things got frightening on Wednesday of the second week at school.

 

Chapter 16
Outed

I was outside after eating lunch. I notice Karin across the school yard. I longed to go and talk to her. It’s terrible to have a best friend and see her all the time and have to pretend that you don’t even know her. I was sitting on the steps deep in thought, remembering the times we had laid on our towels at the pond and poured out our innermost feeling to each other. Suddenly, there was a shadow across me. It was Cindy and Karin. Cindy was smiling a weird smile.

"Hi," she said. "Are you Mike Monroe?"

"Ah, yeah. Ah… I am.” Man was I nervous. Something was up. I knew it.

"You look so much like your Cousin Michelle. It it’s as though you were twins, identical twins. But then identical twins would have to be the same sex, wouldn’t they?"

"I guess so… ah look I have to go to the bathroom," I said standing up. I turned to go into the school.

As I reached the door, Karin called out. "Michelle!” Without thinking, I turned around. "I knew it was you.” She said running up to me. "It really is you isn’t it?"

"No. It’s not me. I mean, I’m not her." I was sweaty and weak. I was falling all over my words. Cindy trotted up the steps. She had that weird smile again.

"It’s OK Michelle. When Karin told me that she suspected that it was you, we talked it over. We decided that if it was you, it was cool with us. We don’t know why you were Michelle last summer, but you were a good friend to Karin. Do you know she cried when you left the picnic on Labor Day?"

"You did?" I asked, dropping all pretense of not being Michelle.

Karin nodded. "I thought I might never see you again," she said.

I began to panic. I looked at Cindy. "You’re not going to tell anyone about last summer, are you?"

"No, we won’t," Karin said. "Best friends don’t tell best friends secrets."

"Do you still want me to be your best friend? I mean now that you know I’m really a boy?"

"I know that inside, you’re Michelle. It doesn’t matter what you look like on the outside."

"Can we talk about this some other time?" I said. "I’d hate to have someone overhear this."

"OK I’ll call mom and make some excuse to come home late and we can talk at your house."

After school, Karin got off the bus at my stop and came in with me. She had a million questions. I took her to my room and showed her the dresses in the other side of the closet.

"Put one on. I want to see Michelle again," she pleaded.

"OK wait for me in the living room.” After she left, I put on one of my favorites in the bathroom I fixed my hair and went out to spend some time with my best friend. I explained how I started dressing up and how mom caught me and that last summer was supposed to be punishment.

"But when I met you and we became friends, it sort of back fired. I really liked getting to know you without having to be some kind of macho guy. I mean, I really got to know you as a person, not just a girl. I never had a friend that was a girl before."

"I’m glad you were Michelle during the summer. I wouldn’t have made friends with a boy the way I made friends with you. Promise me that I can come over and see you, Michelle, sometime during the school year. It would be terrible if I knew Michelle was over here and I couldn’t come see her. OK?"

"I guess. I don’t know how my mother will feel about it. She was pretty freaked out when she found out that you and Cindy had met me as Michelle. I don’t know what she’ll say when she finds out that you know that Michael and Michelle are the same person. Anyway, even if she’s too freaked out by the whole thing, we’ll find a way to see each other. I promise."

When Lucy came home Cindy was with her. I had to sit through Lucy’s version of what happened to create Michelle. Of course I had to fill in some blank spots that Lucy didn’t know. We were all laughing and having a good time just like last summer when mom came in.

"Hello girls.” She said cheerily, just like she had so many times last summer. She went straight to the kitchen. The swinging door never stopped before she poked her head back into the dining room. "Michelle, can I talk to you in the kitchen for a minute?” I got up and went into the kitchen. "What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"You asked me to come in here."

"No, I mean, you Michelle. What are you doing dressed as Michelle?"

"Well, Karin and Cindy figured it out. They confronted me at school today.” Mom started to say something, but I cut her off. "It’s OK mom. They think it’s cool. They’ve promised not to say anything to anyone."

"Oh God, I hope not."

"They won’t mom; Karin and I are best friends."

 

Chapter 17
Friends reunited

Michelle and Karin saw a lot of each other. They were always "meeting" at the mall for a movie Lucy and Cindy would go along to chaperone. After all, they had become pretty good friends too.

Michelle visited during Christmas vacation and again during spring break. Of course, she spent the summer there as well. This went on through high school. I went to community college after high school. I used my initials for class registration and attended class as Michelle. The next year I transferred to state, because Karin was going there. Again I attended class as Michelle. I had worked over the summer as at a burger place and saved up enough to make the first and last on a studio off campus and got another job as Michelle at the local burger shop. Mom took care of tuition and books as well as sent me a regular monthly stipend.

Karin and I saw a lot of each other that year. Rumor had it we were lesbian lovers. Karin was upset at first when she heard it, but as she thought about it, it stopped a lot of guys from hitting on her. One evening at my apartment, I discovered that the rumor had a grain of truth.

"Michelle, you remember how everyone thinks I’m a lesbian?" she asked.

"Yeah, what about it."

"What if I were?"

"Why, you’re not are you?"

"I don’t think so. But how would I know? I mean I never had a real boyfriend in high school. I was too busy hanging out with my best friend.” She smiled at me. “We went to the proms together. I know that the girls thought it was pretty strange, that I would just as soon (and sometimes rather) hang out with you as them."

"Well, have you ever felt like you’d like to kiss another girl?"

"Just you,” she said.

"Well, I don’t count. We both know I’m really a boy.” Was I ever dense? She got up and came over and kissed me full on the lips.

"Michelle Murdock. I’ve always thought you were smart. But sometimes you can be really dense, like a boy.” I was shocked. I didn’t know what to say. She kissed me again. I wasn’t too dense this time I had the sense to kiss back. After that, we were an item. It was official. Michelle and I were lesbians.

 

Epilog
Happily ever after

After graduation, I found a job in computer manufacturing firm about twenty miles from the farm. It was about an hour's commute to state. For the first year, I maintained my studio to be near Karin. I had managed to meet the Larsons as Mike and Karin told them we dated, so it didn’t come as too much a surprise when we announced our engagement that summer. We were married the following August.

Karin was always close to her mother and confessed finally that Michelle and I are the same person. Together, they told her father. At first he was upset that I could do that to Karin, but finally figured out that she knew years before she married me. It took about a month, but Mr. Larson finally came to me and told me that Karin had confessed and after some thought he decided it was OK. He even invited Michelle to come to dinner.

That made my life complete. Mike or Michelle, anytime anywhere I want except work.

Maybe I’ll work on that someday.

– Finis –