by Tanya Allan
“Who taught you?”
“My friend Connie.”
“Care to tell me how long this has been going on?”
“What?”
“I’m not sure, to be frank; I just get the impression you’ve been doing this longer than just today.”
“Does it really matter?”
“Not really; I am out of my depth here, so I am struggling to comprehend how best to proceed.”
“Proceed? Sorry doctor, but this is it; the end. I’m a girl, so all I need is a letter confirming that from a medical perspective so I can get everything changed and get on with my life.”
“I suppose you’re right. I’d like to get a colleague to look...”
“No! Absolutely not! The problem with being unique is that everyone wants a slice. Well, that is just not going to happen. By all means examine me, and get another medical practitioner who knows nothing about me to confirm your findings, but there is no way I’m going to become a circus freak.”
“I understand that. But you must understand that from my perspective, you could hold some key to aid us in dealing with other patients.”
“No, I don’t. You will have to trust me on that one.”
“How long have you been like this?”
“Three days, so far, this time.”
“This time?”
“I’ve been having an evening here and there over the last few months.”
Anne shook her head.
“I’m sorry; I’m still at a loss. Well, let’s do a thorough examination. If you don’t mind I will call in a colleague, and I promise I will not tell them anything about you.”
Unfortunately, Dr. Howlett was with a patient, so they waited fifteen minutes for him to finish. In that time, Anne took a sample of blood from Keira, so as to determine whether her chromosomes would confirm her new gender. She then asked the girl questions to try to obtain some degree of understanding of this event. She held short of calling it a miracle, but that’s clearly what it was.
Eventually, Dr Howlett arrived and so Keira stripped off, unselfconsciously, Anne noted, and allowed them to give her a full examination, including a gynaecological exam.
Anne was amused to note that the girl did not remove a rather plain circlet of grey metal from around her neck.
“Family heirloom?” she asked.
“Something like that.”
Anne allowed Dr. Howlett to take the lead, as he was trained in that field.
While Keira dressed, again, the two doctors conferred, with Anne asking her colleague to state what he discovered.
“I’m at a bit of a loss as to what we’re looking for, unless it’s to say we’ve just seen one of the most perfect specimens of a young adult female it’s been my pleasure to see for a long time.”
“So, Keira is a normal young woman?”
“Anne, do me a favour; tell me what this is all about; what am I missing?”
“Not right now, John, all will become clear in time, I hope. All right, she’s female, and an adult; can you tell me anything about her cycle?”
“She’s probably just had it, as I think she’s got another three or four weeks to go. But from what I saw, a perfect example of a young, healthy and fertile female.”
Keira heard that and grinned. She came back and sat down. Dr Howlett looked mystified and obviously a little miffed that Anne was not telling him more.
“I’ll speak to you later, John; I promise. Thanks for your help.”
John was obviously not going to get his explanation yet, so he grinned good-naturedly and left.
“Now, about that letter,” said Keira.
Fourteen
Graham felt uncomfortable, but he was reluctant to fidget in such august company.
Mrs Doreen Lambert was Headmistress of the very selective Drinkwater Hall Sixth Form College for Girls. They sat in her study overlooking the very fine grounds on the edge of the Chiltern Hills. She was reading the report by Mr Pettifer, Keira’s last headmaster.
After trying to nonchalantly regard his hostess; a middle-aged and conservatively dressed matron, he transferred his gaze and looked at the austere paintings of some equally formidable-looking women that looked down their noses at him from their canvasses. He correctly assumed they were her predecessors.
“I’m sorry if this might take a few minutes; I do like to read what’s been written, and this is all a little sudden,” she said with a smile.
“I understand, I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he replied.
“Keira is in good hands, as Shannon simply adores showing new girls around the school. She’s Irish, and one of our Upper Sixth-boarders. She comes from a rather dysfunctional family in the Republic, so has spent the holidays with a relative in Kent. Unfortunately, the relative had to return to Eire for a family crisis, so Shannon asked if she could stay here for the week or so before term began.”
“Poor girl, one never imagines that wealthier people suffer from problems, but it’s come home to me all too recently.”
“Quite, problems are endemic across the board. Would you like a cup of tea?”
“No, thanks, I’m fine.”
Doreen resumed reading and the clock ticking.
He was actually feeling rather better than he expected to be, all things considered. As he sat there, listening to the elderly grandfather clock tick away the seconds, he thought back over the last few, very hectic weeks.
The summer had been an amazing time for the family, particularly for Keira. She and Connie had spent a lot of the time together. They swam often and went for long walks, during which they discussed everything that Keira had missed by not growing up a girl. Three times a week, they went for a four mile run along the river, across a farmer’s field and back along the road. To start with, Connie had to walk most of it, but after a few weeks was managing the whole thing in a good time.
Under Keira’s supervision, Connie had cut out the comfort food. She still snacked, but usually on oranges or apples. Chocolates, crisps and biscuits were banned, and so she was on track to drop from fourteen stone to nine by the end of the holidays.
Graham was surprised. Firstly by the fact that his daughter had the patience to help a friend in such a way, and secondly that Connie had the strength of character to stick to the strict regime that Keira appeared to have imposed on her. He was also pleasantly surprised in the change in Keira’s friend. She had blossomed as she lost weight. Graham put her change down to a gradual improvement of her self-confidence and self-esteem. The combination of the weight-loss and the psychological stimulation had created an attractive girl with a lot of charm.
Graham knew that Connie was not looking forward to the end of the holidays, as he and Keira were going to France for a week (possibly with Stephanie) after the GCSE results, and then it was almost definite that Keira was not returning to the same school.
As he sat in Doreen’s presence, he hoped that this school might take her. The Head of the last school to which they’d applied had read the letter from Anne and decided it was one complication too many. They hadn’t even bothered to arrange an interview.
Unbeknown to Graham, Keira, although sorely tempted, decided that crime-fighting and superhero stuff should wait, just until she got some stability in her life. She would often go out during the warm nights to practice her gifts, but felt the local constabulary could manage perfectly well without her help for the time being.
Actually, she discovered that being a girl was such fun on its own, that there wasn’t any need for extra excitement. To be honest, she liked her sleep, and so found getting up in the middle of the night was adversely affecting her.
Then, in July, Keira had a surprise visitor as predicted by Dr Howelett. To her, although faintly unpleasant, it was confirmation that she’d made it. She still had not removed her torc ever since that day after the exams. As a result, and out of courtesy, she made an appointment with Dr. Anne to keep her updated with progress.
Anne was flabbergasted e
nough with the revelation of Keira in the first place, so was not so surprised when the girl sat in her room and casually, and not without some pride, announced that she was experiencing her first period.
“I suppose I should be surprised, but I learned that with you, the impossible happens. How are you?”
“Brilliant,” was the one-word answer that was reflected in the girl’s smile.
Anne asked if she could exam her again, to which she assented.
After which, Anne told Keira that she thought that the girl had filled out a little, but otherwise there was little change.
Graham worked hard from his home, making occasional flights abroad with Stephanie, who appeared more and more at the family home. Graham toyed with the possibility of selling it, but as he could afford not to, he decided to keep it as an investment against inflation. Had Linda remained in the area, he might well have moved, but she and Yvonne were now in London.
He was amused to observe that George Marchant had been seen recently at the Tennis Club with a very attractive girlfriend. He had rung up George, as an old friend, and they had got together for a drink as a foursome with Stephanie. They had met Jenny, the new girlfriend and all came to the conclusion that they should have got divorced years ago.
Initially Graham was rather apprehensive about Keira’s reaction to Stephanie, so took things very gently.
Actually, in Stephanie, Keira found an ally. Although almost ten years younger than Graham, Stephanie was a mature, intelligent and an attractive woman. Keira discovered that she was interested in almost the same things as Keira and was obviously deeply in love with Graham. In response, Graham became more animated and human than Keira could ever remember. Gone was the taciturn and miserable man who seemed grumpy all the time. Keira found her easy to like, and so she got on far better with her than with her birth mother.
Having been somewhat close to being terrified of Keira at the start, Graham had actually come to know and love his daughter. He did not admit to being able to understand anything about her, particularly her ability to be two entirely different people without seemingly finding it anything strange. There was still something distinctly different about her, which made him wary. It was like having a pet kitten that one believed was a wild tiger in disguise.
He was also at a loss to understand how anyone could prefer being a girl to being male, but if that’s what made her content, he was okay with it.
He felt a heavy sadness that he had failed Kenneth so completely, so worked especially hard to make it up to his new daughter. Somehow the absence of Linda seemed to make everything lighter and perhaps happier. Although none were aware of it at the time, the slowly degrading relationship soured everything within the small family. Graham was convinced that Linda’s uncompromising attitudes about just about everything pushed him towards Stephanie so as to find someone with whom he could find solace.
Life seemed to become sunnier within the Frost household on the day at the beginning of July when Keira had returned from the doctor with a certain piece of paper. Unlike the paper that Neville Chamberlain waved in September 1938, after returning from a meeting with a certain Mr Hitler, this piece of paper was of great significance. Anne’s letter paved the way for Keira to have her birth certificate altered, her national records, school records, medical records and every other record changed from male to read female.
On the back of that, Graham was better able to plan for the future. Not being able to drive started as a real pain, but he tried to alter his working life-style accordingly. The company, Frobisher & Booth, did not make it desperately easy for him to work from home, although conscious of his unfortunate circumstances. In actual fact, it made very little difference to either the work or the clients. Graham thought that they simply didn’t like not having him at their beck and call. Although Graham knew he was good at his job, what the partners hadn’t told him was he was their best, and they needed him to bring in the clients as he had done for the last decade or so.
They started making things harder and harder; demanding that he go to this meeting, that conference, and yet another meeting, knowing full well that without a car, he was stuffed. Stephanie was able to only do so much, and the stress began to tell on them both. After much soul searching, he asked for a meeting with James Booth, one of the partners, and made his situation plain. In the end, the company was very nice about it, but was not really able to give him the flexibility he needed. Reluctantly, Graham gave notice and launched out on his own as an Independent Financial Services Consultant.
Stephanie quit too, and joined him. Frobisher and Booth then regretted their uncompromising stance, as all Graham’s clients ditched them to stay with the man who had served them so well. That surprised Graham who had expected one or two, but not them all.
James Booth called him at home and all but begged him to come back on his own terms. Graham politely refused and hung up.
In August, all across the British Isles, envelopes were plopping into people’s homes, or were delivered to schools to distribute. The results were in!
“I don’t think I want to know,” said Connie, staring at her envelope.
Keira grinned and ripped hers open.
“Bloody hell!” she said.
“What?”
“All A grades with one A star in English.”
“No? Even in French?”
“Even in French.”
“There has got to have been a mistake; you are so crap at French.”
“I did a lot of revision,” said Keira, knowing that somehow her torc helped her learn what she had believed was un-learnable.
“But you failed the French mock!” Connie pointed out.
“So, I got better.”
“They’ll think you cheated.”
“They can think what they like, I didn’t.”
Connie opened her envelope.
“Well?”
“Three ‘A’s, and the rest ‘B’s. Better than I thought.”
“Enough for sixth form, anyway.”
“I’m not sure I want to go back, not if you’re not going to be there.”
“Hey, live with it, it’s just for two years.”
“Why don’t you want to go back; Mr Pettifer says it’ll be okay?”
“He’s just the Head. I’ve a history there, and even though people can see who and what I am now, there will always be those who will have a problem of some sort.”
“I think most of it is in your imagination. I think people will be fine with it. It’s not like you look like Kenneth in a dress.”
“Thanks for that. Maybe you’re right, and it is in my mind, but if I start afresh somewhere new, it’ll make it easier for me.”
“I suppose,” said her friend, morosely.
“Anyway, look at you, the new, slim-line and drop-dead gorgeous version. The guys will be queuing up, and so you won’t have time for me.”
Connie smiled half-heartedly; pleased on the one hand, as she was already noticing that boys were seeing her, as if for the first time, but she valued Keira’s friendship above nearly everything else.
As a result of those results, Graham was in a better position to seek a place for his daughter at a reputable sixth form college.
Whether it was guilt over not being around for Kenneth’s early schooling, or for some other reason, he investigated the possibilities of getting her into a private school for her last two years.
There were two reasons for this (apart from the fact there was the money available set aside by the divorce settlement), the first was there was less chance of her meeting anyone who remembered her as Kenneth. The second reason was the quality of the education. Keira was clearly a bright student, so he decided that she ought to get the best on offer so to help her get a place at a better university.
Which was why he now watched the indomitable Doreen turn the pages of the report in front of her.
“She’s managed to acquire some impressive grades at GCSE, even if this seems to have surp
rised some of her teachers,” she said.
“She was struggling with her gender disorder in the early part of the syllabus, so when she took the mock exams she was rather distracted,” Graham said, following the agreed spiel.
“Well, if these grades were achieved when she was going through a significant difficulty, what would she achieve without such problems?”
“Quite,” agreed Graham.
“I see she did particularly well in French, which confounded her French teacher.”
“Indeed,” said Graham. “We actually had a week in Brittany last week. She appears to have mastered the language. I was surprised at her fluency with the spoken word.”
“Really, where did you go?”
“Port Crouesty, at the mouth of the Gulf of Morbihan. We have an apartment there, opposite the Marina.”
“Lovely; I know it well. I used to sail in the Gulf quite often when I was younger and fitter.”
“We have a catamaran; a Hobiecat. Keira loves sailing.”
“Does she? Well, she sounds like a good all-rounder. Her Headmaster is of the opinion that she will do well now things are more settled. I notice he refers to her as a boy?”
“The gender confusion was only resolved since she took her exams. He is not fully aware of the current situation. He was made aware of the possibility that my son might become my daughter, but the speed of the transition took us all by surprise. I think the doctor classed it as a unique inter-sex case. It’s all a bit bamboozling, really.”
“I take it you have informed the school you are considering taking her out?”
“It’s not that simple. The school is a state school with a separate sixth form that one has to apply to join. It is over subscribed, so there is stiff competition to get in. Existing pupils have an advantage, as they do have pride of place, but it is never a foregone conclusion. Mr Pettifer has said that a place will remain open for Keira, but we need to make the decision by the end of this week.”
“How interesting. So, he’s willing to take her despite knowing the history?”
“Yes, he’s been very supportive.”
“And yet you are still looking elsewhere?”
