Family Can Be Murder

by Karen Singer

  Sally looked around once the waitress had left. There was no doubt about it, too many of the family members were glancing her way, and all of them had disapproving looks on their faces. Maybe Jenni had been right again. Room service for the two of them would have been the better option.

  Her musing over the situation was interrupted by her mother entering the restaurant. Sally watched as, just like she always seemed to do, her mother walked rather grandly around the entire room, going from table to table, talking nicely with everyone. “Mom seems to be holding up pretty well after Dad’s death,” Sally noted softly.

  “She acts like nothing happened,” Jenni agreed.

  “To me, she almost looks happy,” Sally noted. “But then, Mom was always able to hide things pretty well.” She shook her head. “She’s had years of experience.”

  Jenni took that in but didn’t reply.

  Since the table Sally and Jenni had chosen was toward the back and not far from Judith’s usual table, she got to them last. “I see they still haven’t arrest you yet!” Judith said nastily to Jenni.

  “I didn’t do it, Grandma!” Jenni insisted.

  “So you say,” Judith replied. “I know better.” With that, she turned and walked off toward her table, where she sat alone.

  Sally shook her head at her mother’s remark. “Don’t let her get to you Jenni. You know how she can be sometimes.”

  “Yeah, but as far as I can tell, she’s like that all the time.”

  “Sometimes, Jenni. Sometimes.”

  “Can I ask you a question about Grandpa?” Jenni asked.

  “Sure. What?”

  “If Grandma is seventy-five…or just about, how old was Grandpa? I mean, I saw him when we first arrived with that girl from the hotel staff. Wouldn’t he be too old to be doing things like that at his age?”

  Sally grunted a laugh. “Grandpa was a lot younger than Grandma, Jenni. I think there was about six or seven years difference. So while Grandma is turning seventy-five, Grandpa was only sixty-eight or sixty-nine. And Jenni, just because you get old, doesn’t mean you don’t get those…yearnings. From what you told me, it sounds like getting older didn’t slow Daddy down much at all.”

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  “Look at him over there,” Andy Finch seethed as he stared angrily at his “son” sitting across the room with his sister Sally. “How much did those operations cost to make him look that good? And now he has the nerve to show up here, after murdering Dad, and rub it right in our faces! The nerve!”

  “But Andy,” Cassie replied, “it looked like Mom wasn’t exactly happy to see him there too. Why would Kyle murder your father if your mother paid for his surgeries?”

  Andy shook his head. “Maybe it’s more like Mom paid for the surgeries and Dad didn’t like it like the rest of us. And then when he saw Kyle here and what the doctors did to him, maybe the two of them argued and then Kyle killed him. Mom for sure wouldn’t want Kyle around knowing he killed Dad.”

  “Who knows!” Cassie exclaimed. “But I think I need another drink. This whole trip has been nothing but miserable. First Mom brings Kyle here to show him off, then your father gets killed and we have to put up with the police asking us if we did it. I can’t wait to get out of here.”

  “Yeah,” Andy agreed. “Another drink is exactly what we need.” He stood up and signaled for the waitress. A minute later, he had ordered another in a long line of alcoholic drinks that he and his wife had already consumed that day. And he had no intention of stopping.

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  Jenni and Sally ordered their dinners. While they waited, they cautiously looked around the room, watching everyone else either ordering their own dinners, or looking back at them. As far as Sally was concerned, every last person in the room appeared to have hostile looks on their faces every time they looked her way. And Sally knew that every one of those hostile looks was purposely aimed at her and Jenni. She saw the waitress bringing drinks to her brother Andy and his wife. She could tell from all the way across the room that they both were drunk. It disgusted her, but it was also no surprise.

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  Andy took another sip of the scotch he had ordered. His eyes once again went to his son. Just the sight of Kyle made him sick. The boy, his own son, was such an embarrassment! Brian had turned out to be a great son. Brian was in college now. Brain was a son he bragged about. But Kyle…. Kyle had turned out to be the biggest embarrassment in his life! Stupid kid! He should have murdered him long ago.

  He downed half his glass in one gulp as he continued to stare angrily at Kyle. “Stupid pervert!” Andy finally muttered as his anger continued to grow. He set his glass down and got up from the table. He stumbled a bit as he took a few steps in Kyle’s direction. “You pervert!” he yelled across the room at Kyle.

  The entire room looked up at Andy. Sally and Jenni included.

  “You pervert!” Andy yelled again. Then he faced his mother at her table. “And you…you did that to him, and you wouldn’t lend us a dime to help us when we really needed it. I lost my job and we had no money at all coming in, and you wouldn’t lend us anything! Nothing! And you paid to do that…to him? You bitch!”

  Judith was shocked. “Andy! Watch what you say! And what the hell are you talking about?”

  But it was Greg that now stood up to answer. “You paid for all the operations to turn Kyle into a woman!” he accused angrily. “That’s what we’re talking about. You paid all that money for a piece of filth like that, when Kaitlyn was fighting for her life, and you wouldn’t do anything to help!”

  The echoes and shouts of agreement were all over the room, until the sound of loud hysterical cackling laughter finally stopped it. Everyone saw Judith laughing hysterically, but what they didn’t see was the anger building on Jenni’s face. Not just anger, but outright rage. In her shock, Sally was too busy watching the rest of the family to see it, so there was no one to even try to slow Jenni down, not that anything would have worked.

  Jenni stood up, absolute rage filling her. “You stupid hypocrites!” she yelled loudly as she worked her way around from behind the table to stand in the middle of the floor and face everyone else.

  “Jenni…don’t!” Sally yelled. But even as she said it, she knew she was too late.

  “Where did you ever get the idea that I’ve had any operations at all?” Jenni shouted.

  “Where?” her father replied angrily as he pointed his finger. “Just look at you!”

  “You can’t hide it!” Greg agreed as Judith’s cackling laughter started again. “You can’t hide the fact that somebody paid for you to have surgery to turn you into…that!”

  “And just listen to him,” Jimmy Finch added as he too stood up. “He’s even had surgery to make him sound like a woman.”

  “And it would be just like you, Mom,” Andy added, “to pay for it, and then bring him here and rub it in all our faces!”

  Judith’s only reply to that was to continue laughing hysterically.

  “You morons!” Jenni absolutely screamed. “You stupid, stupid morons!” she yelled as she took a step closer to her uncles. “I haven’t had any surgeries. No operations. Nothing. I haven’t even been able to go to a gender therapist yet…because I can’t afford it. And you’re accusing me of taking money, from her? You’re out of your minds!”

  “Well look at you,” Greg replied. “How do you explain how you could possibly change so much?”

  “How do I explain it?” Jenni yelled, not believing he could ask such a question. “Hard work! That’s how.”

  “Hard work, and a lot of operations!” Andy yelled back.

  “Damn you!” Jenni screamed. “Damn you all! You want to see how I look like I do? You want to know why I look this way?” Before anyone could stop her, Jenni jumped up on a chair at an empty table, then jumped up on the table itself. The sound of Judith’s loud hysterical cackling laughter grew louder.

  “You want
to see why I look like this?” Jenni shouted at them all. “Then I’ll show you!” With that, Jenni tore off the top she had been wearing, exposing her bra and the waist cincher underneath. “See!” Jenni shouted at them as she pulled the zipper on the waist cincher down. “This gives me the shape I need.” She threw the cincher on the table at her feet. She started unfastening her bra. “And see, breast forms to give me boobs!” The bra and breast forms landed at her feet as well. Judith’s hysterical cackling was going crazy in the background. Jenni pulled the zipper down on her skirt and let it fall to her feet. “See,” she said as she stepped out of it. “I’ve got this on underneath.” To the amazement of all, she pulled down the spandex panty that held her butt and hip pads. The women in the restaurant were relieved to see that Kyle was still wearing a regular pair of panties underneath. Jenni held the special spandex panty up. “See,” she said. “Padding! That and a lot of makeup is how I look the way I do. There were no operations. I haven’t been able to afford to see a single doctor yet. All I can do is dream about it.”

  Jenni looked around the room. Everyone appeared to be stunned by what she had just done. She was stunned too. The only one who didn’t appear stunned, was Grandma, who was rolling around in her seat laughing uncontrollably. “Stop it Grandma,” Jenni yelled. “You’re being ridiculous.”

  “Ridiculous?” Judith Finch managed to get out through her laughter. “This just made every penny I paid for this entire trip, absolutely worth it. This is the best thing I’ve seen in years!”

  Jenni shook her head and did her best to ignore her grandmother. Still on top of the table, and still wearing nothing but a thin pair of panties, she faced everyone else in the room. “You’ve all been nothing but cruel to me. And to make matters worse, you’ve been nothing but cruel to Aunt Sally. She was the only one in the family who cared enough about me to take me in. The only one who saw me for what I really am and didn’t condemn me for it. She’s been the only person in the entire family to show me any love at all.” Jenni faced her father. “She was the only one who saw the brutal abuse that I had to put up with from you and Mom…my entire life! And you all condemned her for it!”

  Jenni looked around at the stunned room. Only her grandmother seemed to be enjoying herself. She was still laughing. Jenni shook her head, then faced the rest of the family again. “And now you all think that I killed Grandpa. Who the hell decided that? Huh? All I did was to discover his body. I was hungry after not being able to eat dinner with the rest of you. All I was doing was looking for something to eat, when I nearly tripped over him. And now you all think it was me. Well it wasn’t!”

  Once again, Judith’s seemingly uncontrollable laughing fit erupted again. “Stop it Grandma!” Jenni yelled at her. “Shut up!”

  But that only made Judith laugh even harder.

  “Shut up!” Jenni yelled at her again. “After you went so far out of your way to make sure I came on this stupid trip, I could almost believe that you intended on making it look like I killed Grandpa all along.”

  Her accusation suddenly caught Judith off guard. Her hysterical cackling laughter slowed down quickly and an angry look seemed to settle across her face instead. “How dare you say…”

  “I said shut up, Grandma! You’re nothing but a ridiculous old attention hungry bitch!”

  “You watch your mouth!” Judith yelled angrily.

  “I said shut up!” Jenni yelled back. “Everyone here knows it! Everyone! I’m just the only one here that’s not interested in any of your stupid money. I’m sorry Grandpa is dead, Grandma, but get lost!”

  With that, Jenni jumped down from the table and gathered all her clothes up in her arms. Angrily, she strode from the room.

  Sally stood up as everyone watched Jenni leaving. “She’s right, you know,” she said to everyone as she slowly followed Jenni. “You’ve all been nothing but stupid, and cruel.” She turned around to face her mother. “Especially you!” With that, she turned and walked out.

  “Jenni!” Sally called as she chased after her. “Jenni. Wait!”

  Jenni stopped outside the restaurant and turned at her aunt’s voice. Her arms were loaded with all her things. “I’m sorry Aunt Sally,” she said.

  “Don’t be!” Sally replied. “Maybe you cleared the air about a few things.”

  “Huh!” Jenni grunted. “I doubt it.” She turned to continue walking toward her room.

  “Jenni,” Sally said. “Wait.”

  Jenni stopped again.

  “Let’s go to my room instead. Okay? We can still have dinner together.”

  Jenni rolled her eyes and held up all the clothes in her hand. “Aunt Sally…”

  “Jenni, stop it. You can get dressed again in my room. And it’s a lot closer than yours.”

  Jenni finally relented. “Okay Aunt Sally.”

  “I never knew you wore all that under your clothes,” Sally said as they walked.

  “All the time. It’s the best I’ve been able to come up with so far.”

  “Well it’s pretty damn good!” Sally exclaimed. “How come I’ve never seen any of those things in the wash?”

  “I only wash them when you’re not around,” Jenni replied.

  “Why?”

  “Because…it’s private,” Jenni told her. “And embarrassing.”

  “Embarrassing?”

  “I shouldn’t have to have any of these things at all! None! I only need them because….”

  “Because you’re not a real woman.”

  “Not my body, anyway.”

  Sally stopped her and pulled her into an embrace. “You know I’d gladly pay for all those doctors you need, if I could.”

  “I know Aunt Sally. It’s all just…frustrating!”

  “I know dear,” Sally said as she continued to hold her. “Jenni, these last two years, since you’ve come into my life, have been the best years I’ve ever known. The best! Jenni….” But how could she continue? How could she say what she had been feeling for so long now? “Jenni,” she tried again. “I never had any kids. My marriage didn’t last very long and it turned out to be downright horrible from the start.”

  “I know Aunt Sally. You’ve told me,” Jenni replied as she continued to enjoy being held by her aunt.

  “Jenni, in the time since you’ve moved in, you’ve become the daughter I never had. You’ve become the little girl I always wished for. You’ve become like my real daughter. I know that’s just silly thinking on my part, but that’s how I feel.”

  Jenni turned her head to look at her aunt. “And I keep thinking about you as the mother I should have had. I keep wanting to think about you as my real mother.”

  Sally held her tighter. “I love you Jenni.”

  “I love you too Aunt Sally,” Jenni replied.

  Sally finally let go of her. “Now let’s go back to my room and let you get dressed. You’re walking around out here in just your panties and nothing else. Whatever got into you girl?”

  Jenni laughed.

  While Jenni got fully dressed again, Sally called down to the restaurant and asked if they could send up the dinners they had ordered in the restaurant. It was easy to arrange. A few short minutes later, Jenni came out of the bathroom fully dressed and looking just as good, and feminine, as she had before dinner. Sally couldn’t help but smile.

  “What do you do with all this room?” Jenni asked as she looked around at the nice big suite.

  “Not much!” Sally replied. “Although since I’ve been spending so much more time here than I intended to on this trip, I have to say, it’s been nice.”

  “More time here?” Jenni asked.

  “Before we left, I was planning on spending a lot of time on the beach,” Sally explained. “But since nobody seems to want me around anymore, I haven’t felt comfortable going there.”

  “We should have never left home,” Jenni said, for the thousandth time.

  “You’re right about that!” Sally agreed.

  When their dinners arr
ived, they spread the meal out on the kitchen table and sat to eat together. “Where the heck did everyone get the impression that Grandma paid for operations to help me become a woman,” Jenni asked. “My dream!” she added.

  “Who knows,” Sally replied. “But Jenni, you’ve got to admit. You do look amazingly female.”

  “Thanks,” Jenni replied with a big smile. “You don’t know how much I like hearing that.”

  “I’ve noticed,” Sally replied. “I’ve noticed because it’s not the first time I’ve told you that.”

  “I know,” Jenni replied. “And trust me, I love hearing you say it, every time.”

  Sally laughed. “I’m sure you do. So where did you find all those…things that you wear?”

  “The internet,” Jenni replied. “It took a lot of trial and error, and I’m still always trying to find better things, but so far, this is what I’ve come up with.”

  “Well it’s pretty darn good!” Sally told her. She thought about something. “Jenni, if you ordered all that stuff over the internet, how did you do it? I didn’t know you had a credit card. As far as I know, you don’t even have a bank account.”

  “I don’t,” Jenni told her. “I buy money orders and then send them off.”

  “Money orders?”

  “I get paid in cash for what I do, Aunt Sally. The money orders are just the easiest way for me to buy things.”

  Sally turned more serious. “Jenni, what do you do to make that money? What kind of job do you have?”

  “Please don’t ask, Aunt Sally. You know I don’t want anyone knowing.”

  “Why should your job be so embarrassing?”

  “It’s not. It’s just…. People might get the wrong impression.”

  “Then explain it to me.”

  “I…can’t.”

  “Is it something people might think is illegal?”