A Step Off the Path

Flower Girl

"Sorry."

She let out a long sigh.

Chapter 2

"I'm an only child, and an adopted one at that. My mum couldn't have kids and her health was too poor for her to take on paid employment. She did sewing at home, patchwork stuff like cushion covers, dolls, bedspreads, etc and sold them to bring in a bit of extra money.

People would give her leftover materials and old clothes to use for her patchwork. This included a lot of girls' dresses and other items with their useful colourful patterns. Sometime when I was quite young, I started playing dress-ups, quite openly in front of my parents.

I just kept doing it more and more. I felt better when I was dressed as a girl and I came to realise that I was a girl not a boy.

I would have been ten, I think, when Mum and Dad talked to me at some length over a period of many weeks. Eventually they decided that, okay, I was a girl, and we got the process started shortly thereafter. I became a full-time girl, school and all."

"Did people pick on you, give you . . ."

"Oh yeah, and not just kids either. All I could do was stick it out, I felt that I didn't have a choice. Things did slowly improve over the years, but there is always a few . . ."

"What about work?"

"Yeah, that's been a challenge. I've always been upfront about being trans and that has probably been a mistake. I've done some courses on business management and office procedures, but I have only ever been able to get casual work.

Even the crowd I'm working for now won't make me permanent though I mostly work full-time for them. It's Wacko's, that big variety store in town. They do online orders as well and that's my job: out the back away from the customers doing the online stuff."

"Do you like it?"

"Not really. The pay is no great shakes, but at least it's a job. I'm trying to save up to get my transition finished."

"You mean . . .?" Henry nodded towards her groin.

"Yeah."

"I should go."

"Sure."

Chapter 3

The next morning, Heidi answered the door of her small flat. A large bunch of flowers stood there at eye level.

"What?"

The flowers moved to the side.

"Shit, Henry, what are you doing here? I'm in the middle of cleaning; I probably look a wreck."

"You look fine. Can I come in?"

"Yeah, I suppose."

"These are for you. I don't think I behaved very well last night and I've been feeling guilty."

"God, Henry. Look, it was a cock-up, as you put it so graphically; you shouldn't feel guilty. But thank you, I love flowers. I've got a vase because I can sometimes get flowers from Dad's garden."

"So you love flowers, do you?"

"Oh yes, and this is a beautiful big bunch." Heidi was busy arranging the flowers in the vase. "Anyway, how did you manage to get these on a Sunday morning?"

"I have my sources."

"Oh, that looks terrific. Thank you, Henry, thank you so much."

"Tell me, have you ever tried to get a job in a flower shop?"