Surprises All Around

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Surprises All Around

By: Annette MacGregor


I looked around. Yep, the house was pretty clean. The table was set. Dinner would be ready shortly. Do I serve wine? No, I'd best not. Tonight would be difficult enough. Though some extra relaxation... No, I think clear heads are best.

My wife knew we were having a special evening tonight. Today was the thirtieth anniversary of our first date. Our older kid was off at college, and junior was at his friend's for the weekend. She'd had a peaceful week, for which I was glad. We were both looking forward to the weekend. I just hoped my decision to reveal my secret didn't ruin everything. I'd rather keep it forever, than have the worst happen.

I heard her car in the driveway. Best stop running over things again and again. I did a quick look around. Yeah, I think it'll do.

"Hi, Love." she called out, as she came in the back door.

"Hi. Missed you." I said, walking up to grab some of her bags. "Dinner'll be ready in about ten minutes, honey."

"Smells good. What'd you come make this time?"

I laughed. She knew I wasn't much of a chef. "I actually experimented this time. It's sorta a stir fry." I went on to describe how I'd chopped up the chicken and seared it on all sides, before putting it aside. Then, I heated a bit of olive oil in a skillet, added some crushed garlic and let that simmer a bit before adding a bit of ginger. When the garlic started to brown, I’d added chopped onion and cooked the mixture, until the onion began to turn translucent. At which point, I added some soy sauce. Next, I’d put in the sugar snap peas and the chicken to stir and, in the case of the chicken, finish cooking. I’d just added the water chestnut before she’d walked in the door.

"Whatever you did there, it smells divine. I don’t know what I did to deserve a husband like you!"

I hugged her, because I needed to, and because I didn’t want her to see the stress that list line had caused. "We’d best get cleaned up, honey. It’s best hot."

"I’ll be right back. Would you mind fixing me a glass of wine?"

"Okay." Well, one glass won’t cause a problem. It’s not as if I suggested it.

Dinner went well. I guess I’d lucked out on the spicing ratios. I knew I’d never get to be anywhere near the cook she was, but maybe that was a good thing. We cleaned the table together.

"It’s nice to have a quiet weekend without kids underfoot, for a change." She said. "Oh, you managed to do the whole meal in a single pan."

"Not quite. I just rinsed the dirty stuff and put it in the dishwasher."

"Well, at least you didn’t get every pot in the kitchen dirty, like you accuse me of doing."

I laughed. "But, your results are soooo good. I do my share of the work cleaning up after one of those meals!"

She joined my laughter. We chatted about a lot of things, as we finished cleaning up and putting the leftovers away.

"I’m glad there’s enough left for me to take it for lunch one day next week."

"Once I’d thawed the chicken, I figured I’d best cook it all."

"Yes, I don’t like to re-freeze meat."

With that, we finished the clean up.

"Shall we watch something?" she asked me.

"Actually, there’s something I wanted to talk to you about, honey. Do you mind?"

"Not at all."

We went, and sat in the living room.

"So, what’s the mystery?"

"Honey, I love you more than anything in the world. But, I’ve kept a secret from you for most of the time we’ve been married."

She looked at me suddenly, with a worried expression.

"I’ve a medical condition; I guess you could call it."

Her expression changed, but it was more concerned than anything else "You’re not going to die are you?"

"No, nothing like that. It’s more medical and mental. The stress of hiding it from you and others has been eating at me for years. And that I had a secret at all, from you, was also hard."

"So, you’re going to tell me now?"

"Yes. I’m going to try. I tried once, before our eldest was born, but circumstances conspired, and I just couldn’t. Julie, this doesn’t change who I am. Sorry, I’m avoiding it again, but you deserve to know. I’m" I took a deep breath. "I’m a transsexual."

"I know."

------

Where does it go from here? Only time will tell.


Author's Note: I'm not sure what to say about this one. I hope some of you find the story uplifiting, or at least interesting.

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Comments

I know!

YYYessss, nice one! Just a little bit further into the "where do we go from here" would be nice, but not in this episode, it would detract from the impact of the "I know"
Love and cuddles,
Janice Elizabeth

Pigeons

Hello Annette,

So you put a cat in a room full of pigeons and then turn out the light.

"I know" takes a common storyline and opens it up to our fertile imaginations.

I'm enjoying 'Hidden Gifts' and you've now got me hooked. I've just read 'Coming Out' - you definitely have an interesting style of writing; I'll be starting on 'Who Was I?' next.

Susie

Who Was I, was great!

Yes! Annette has a great style, this one has also good potential?

LoL
Rita

Age is an issue of mind over matter.
If you don't mind, it doesn't matter!
(Mark Twain)

LoL
Rita

Surprises All Around Does Fit Annette :-)

Yes I found your story uplifting and interesting. Will you continue the story after the contest? Because I would like to see how the story goes. You have written a great story before and are currently posting one in Karen Page's universe, I believe that you have the talent to tell the tale.
May Your Light Forever Shine

    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine

It's an interesting start

... and fraught with questions, which is a great thing.

My first question is: What expression does the wife have on her face when she says, "I know"?

Her Face

. . .is twisted from the effort of hanging from a cliff.

Angela Rasch (Jill M I)

Angela Rasch (Jill M I)

A very risky step

If I sound a bit irrational about this...

I told my wife about the problem in the very early 80's. My son and oldest daughter were both graduated from High School. We had just adopted a 3 month old from Korea. After I told her, she eventually said that she could not live with another woman.

Being too hysterical to think clearly, I vowed to pray and do everything I could to be "cured". So, the misery continued until 2004.

The risks are very high. You may think you have to be a woman, but if you do count on losing everything. Having said that, anything good that comes out of it, consider yourself blessed.

Things are changing rapidly for T folk; still in Oregon, being T is a legal disability. I doubt that I will ever encourage anyone to do it. Once done, I will have nothing but compassion for you.

I would really like to hear stories where Husband/Wife continued to live together. They are very rare. In my own deluded mind, I can not understand why a simple gender change makes the new woman unsuitable as a mate.

Someone on this site told me that they got the courage to do it because of my sucess. Rather than have that happen, I wish I had killed myself. I can in no way take responsibility for anyones life but mine.

Gwendolyn

I understand what your saying

Although in this story the wife "Knows" and is still a loving partner, I guess it's about how much licence he gets to practice in the future?

LoL
Rita

Age is an issue of mind over matter.
If you don't mind, it doesn't matter!
(Mark Twain)

LoL
Rita

A good start, but I wonder

A good start, but I wonder if he had revealed his secret before whether their marriage would have survived. Even with an empty nest, that question still haunts everyone involved: husband and wife, parent and child. Also, given the years of family investment, I wonder if the secret should have stayed a secret, not an invitation for disaster. For some reason, I'm regretful why, I feel transexuality should be for the young and strong of heart, for those with more to gain than those with more to lose. Familial love/responsiblity makes us noble, self-love makes us narcissistic.

I am a grain of sand on a near beach; a nova in the sky, distant and long.
In my footprints wash the sea; from my hands flow our universe.
Fact and fiction sing a legendary song.
Trickster/Creator are its divine verse.

--Old Man CoyotePuma

you're a tease!

Don't stop! You have to develop the story and soon! So many alternatives, you'd better let us all into the secret you've created...... NOW... please! Love Ginger xx

I'd rather keep it forever, than have the worst happen.

Andrea Lena's picture

...yep! You're getting to me...this is so good even if it does hurt a bit. I'm biting my lip so my son doesn't hear me crying. Thank you!


Dio vi benedica tutti
Con grande amore e di affetto
Andrea Lena

  

To be alive is to be vulnerable. Madeleine L'Engle
Love, Andrea Lena

The look on the face...

.. is crucial..... It can either be "shock, horror!" or it can be "blind indifference" , or it can be clear understanding" or it could even be "happy to have it confirmed"........ Personally, I hope it's the last of these. Having got the shock horror treatment, I know it's a very brave girl that confides the secret! xx

Maybe the narrator did say

Maybe the narrator did say enough, before the eldest was born, for Julie to start working it out then.