At breakfast his mother said, “Dennis, I think it’s time to get your hair
cut.”
“Mom, I got my hair cut last week.”
“It couldn’t have been last week, honey. It’s already over your ears.”
“No way, Mom. I just got it cut.”
“No arguing [...]
“It’s your choice. Go home and think it over.”
Sherry nodded solemnly and left. She thought about it quite
a lot. She thought about how she had never quite fit in as a man
and how everything felt so right now. She had a few drinks in
thinking it over, too.
Sherry was wearing a pink suit and was waiting in Janet’s
outer office when Janet came to work the next day. “Come on in,
Sherry,” Janet said. They sat down and Janet didn’t say anything.
Sherry took a deep breath and smiled. “I want it to be
permanent. When can we start?”
Janet looked solemn. Inside she felt joyous, but kept a
professional demeanor. She opened a drawer and handed her a piece
of paper. “Take this to the pharmacy, they’ll fill the order.
Follow the instructions exactly, Sherry. Ok?”
“Sure, Janet.”
Janet stood up and hugged Sherry. “Welcome to the other side,
Sherry.”
“Do you want to go back to being Sam?”
“What? But Colonel Hampton said-”
I know what he said,” Janet interrupted. “What has been done
is easily changable. Even if you have no facial hair, all you’d
need to do is get a crewcut, change clothes, take out your
earrings, and everyone would assume you are a man. But now you’re
at a decision point.
“For what I am going to say now, I do not want an answer.
Promise me you won’t say a word to me until tomorrow morning or
later if you need the time. All right?”
Sherry nodded.
“This is the choice: you can go down the impersonation road
with facial surgery and breast implants. It’ll fool most of the
people. When you’re done, Dr. Trotti can make you look almost the
way you look now. Not quite, but almost.
“The other option is more permanent. Instead of implants,
you’d start hormones. We’ll schedule you for voice surgery, your
voice will be higher forever. The facial surgery will be more
extensive. And finally, if you make it that far, you’d go through
sexual reassignment surgery. At that point, you’d be as female as
chemistry, training, and surgery can make you.
“Face and voice?”
“Yes. I’d say if she is to go that route, we do the surgery
before she goes out for learning how to live on her own as a
woman.”
“All right,” Col Hampton concluded. “Call the airport and
have Sherry brought here for a discussion about hormones with you
and you alone. We’ll wait up in Trotti’s office.”
Sherry came to Janet’s office looking an absolute mess. She
was sweating from the effort of conducting the dead engine
exercises. “This is a little out of the unusual,” Sherry said.
“What’s up?”
“I’ve been reviewing your progress here, Sherry. You are
turning out to be a fine young woman. When I or anyone else looks
at you, we’d be hard-pressed to believe that you are really a man.
How do you feel about it?”
Sherry was taken a little aback. “I guess I feel good about
it. When I get dressed and look in the mirror, I see me. It’s
hard for me to realize that I am a man, too.”