Transformations Ch. 03

"Joey," said the manager, quite calmly. "Go home, you're fired. You can't talk to customers that way. I'm very sorry Miss."

"Ahh! Fuck the lot of you!"

Joey grabbed his jacket from behind the bar, downed the second white wine spritzer in one and headed out the door, slamming it behind him.

He walked up the street in the darkness. Great. Just absolutely fucking great. Now he'd have to look for another job.Bloody women. He was sick of the whole damn lot of them.

"Joey!"

He turned. It was the woman who had just got him fired.

"Great! Happy now? You just got me fired."

"You got yourself fired Joey. You have no one to blame but yourself. It's time you started owning your shit Joey."

"Do you know me or something? You hear a woman calling me that, you think it's okay for you to, too?"

"Joey. That's your name isn't it?

Well, that much was true.

"And it's what I've always called you."

"What? When? I don't know you. I've never seen you before tonight."

"I've known you your whole life Joey."

"Oh yeah, like what? You're my fucking guardian angel or something?"

"No. But I am your cousin."

"My, what?"

"My grandmother is your grandmother's sister."

"Mikey? Fuck! No way!"

"Way, Joey. It's me, Mikey. Although, I go by Michelle a lot these days."

"No fucking way. You're spying on me now? They sent you, right? They sent you to spy on me?"

"If by they, you mean your mother and grandmother, they care about you."

"I just knew it. Typical, absolutely bloody typical."

"They don't know I'm here Joey. Your mother spent half of last night crying on the phone to my mother. Look, I know how hard it is, how confusing it is at first. It plays havoc with your emotions, I know it does, I went through it all myself, only recently. Joey, you're not this big of an asshole. Go on, even you'll admit that! You're not this much of a chauvinist pig, no one is. It's your, it's your mutating Y chromosome. Once it starts changing, if it's not kept in balance, a whole pendulum effect starts up and you start having crazy mood swings, back and forth, back and forth. You need to change Joey. Whether you like it or not, this thing is happening to you. If you keep it all bottled up inside and pushed to the back, it's going to have undesirable consequences. Like tonight, with that girl. I watched the two of you. She was up for it Joey. Until you spoiled it. And with your mother? She doesn't deserve what you're putting her through. Let me help you Joey. As someone who knows, who's stood in your shoes, please, let me help you."

Joey's face immediately scrunched up, his eyes welled and he didn't know what to do. Michelle walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him. "Let it out Joey. I've got you, just let it all out."

Joey burst into tears and sobbed uncontrollably on his cousin's shoulder.

"Oh my God, Mikey. I don't know what's happening to me. I hate what I'm doing to my mother, but I just can't seem to do anything about it. I can't make it right. And my mind is totally fucked up. I don't know what I am anymore. Sometimes, even in this body, I feel like I'm a woman inside. But I'm not, but my mind is just going back and forth and my body is staying the same. You've gotta help me Mikey. I can't do this by myself."

"Shh, shh, shh, it's alright. You're not a alone. I'll help you. Will you accept my help Joey? Will you?"

Michelle held her palms either side of Joey's face, making him look at her. Tears weeping, he nodded.

"Okay then, lets go somewhere we can talk."

There was a cafe around the corner. At this time of night, it was quiet. Joey and Michelle took a seat away from the window and Joey sat with his back to the rest of the cafe, Michelle sitting opposite.

"What's that you said about a chromosome?"

"I'm not a doctor Joey, everybody is born with 23 pairs of chromosomes, one of which is your sex chromosome. Girls are born with two X's. Boys with one X and one Y. Every so often, nature does something weird and a baby gets born with some genetic mutation and ends up with ambiguous genitalia, some sort of intersex condition, Klinefelter, XXY, that sort of thing."

"So what does that make us?"

"None of the above Joey. We were both born with an X and a Y, just like every other male out there."

"Notjust like every other male."

"Yes Joey.Just like. At some point, according to one of our distant cousins, who is a doctor by the way, our Y chromosomes mutate. They don't change into X, that's silly, X chromosomes have far more genes in them. What happens with us, is Y takes a vacation, turns invisible, doesn't show up on tests anymore, just disappears. But somehow, it comes back. It's like it has an on-off switch. When it's off, we become women. I'd like to say it's as simple as that, but I imagine its anything but simple."

"So, we're mutants now? Real life X-Men?"

"Don't be daft Joey. That's just the movies."

"I just can't believe any of this Mikey. I mean, a couple days ago, my life was normal. It was shit, but it was normal. And now, everything is upside down."

"But you're not alone Joey. You haveus now and we're all here for you. Those that are in on the family secret, you can trust. You can trust all of us Joey. The stakes are just too big not to."

"I can't control it Mikey. I can't make it happen. I've tried. I just don't know how."

"It's your emotions Joey. They're not under control."

"How am I supposed to control them? Fuck! They're emotions."

"Keep your voice down, or you'll get us thrown out. It's not easy, I know, but it can be done."

"I can't."

"Only a coward says can't, Joey. Are you a coward?"

"No."

"Then there's no can't. You erase that word from your vocabulary. Youwill do it. Youwill learn how to change back and forth and youwill learn to control your emotions and stop having these destructive mood swings."

"How?"

"By letting those who love you, help you. You're not an island Joey, no man is. Let us in. Forget all about appearances and manliness and weakness. Joey, you have a boy in you and you have a girl in you. But you need synergy between them. Yes, there's two of you. But you need to become one. At least, your mind does. Your body, that's secondary, your body will keep up. It's your mind that you need to take care of. And the old rules are gone. Forget being manly. If you're a man and you feel like crying, then cry. If you're a man and you need to open up about your emotions, do it. No one's judging you Joey. There's nothing wrong with being open and true to what your heart is feeling. I'm a woman Joey, right now, I'd happily punch you for what you've put your mother through. I own that feeling. I'm not afraid of it. My feelings are cohesive. I have male and female thoughts, regardless of which body I happen to be wearing. You don't have to keep all male thoughts in the male body and all female thoughts in the female one. That's what you have to understand and that's what you have to learn. Only then will you have any chance at being happy Joey."

Michelle reached out her hand and squeezed Joey's in her own. "Now I think you should go home and talk to your mother. But be tender with her Joey. Be kind, be nice and she'll forgive you and she'll help you. And with your mother on your side Joey, all the bad just goes away. Your mother is the best thing you have in your life. Don't lose that Joey. Of all things, don't mess that one up."

Joey went home. It was only ten when he found himself putting his key in the front door, letting himself in.

That was strange. He could hear music. Coming from his room.

Ascending the stairs, the music got louder. It was definitely coming from his room. And the door was shut. Turning the handle, he opened it. What he saw came as a surprise. He could not have been more surprised if the next time he farted, a clown car drove out of his ass with a juggling monkey on the back seat.

His mother. On his bed. Wearing the salmon shirt dress he had bought and hidden, the blonde wig too. The dress was unbuttoned all the way down and she was naked underneath. His mother was fucking herself, right there, on his bed, with a vibrator. And she hadn't heard or seen him come into the room.

"Mum."

She didn't hear him.

"Mum!"

She kept on driving that dildo into her pussy, playing with her tits.

"MUM!"

Her eyes opened wide and she stopped what she was doing. She pulled the sides of the dress closed. She was shocked and mortified that she had been caught. He wasn't usually home until past midnight. He was home two hours early.

She got up off his bed as he just stood there, totally flummoxed. "You think you're the only one who can masturbate in someone else's bedroom, wearing someone else's clothes, you little shit? You think I can't smell your smelly backside all over my sheets? Well think again." She slapped his face, really, really hard. It stunned him.

"I'm not taking any more crap from you Joey. If you're going to live in my house, you're getting your act together."

"Mum, I'm sorry."

She stormed off into her bedroom.

"Please, Mum, wait."

She slammed the door. He opened it.

"Get out of here Joey. I can't look at you right now."

"I'm sorry Mum. I've been a total bastard to you, I know I have. I am so, so sorry. Please forgive me. I love you so much," he was crying now. "It hurts me every second of the day to think what I've done to you, it's eating me up. Mum, I will do anything to make it right again. Anything at all, just tell me what. I will do it. For you Mum, I will do it for you, please."

She swapped her son's dress for her own dressing gown whilst stood with her back to him. Turning to look into his eyes, emotion washed over her and she ran to him.

"Oh Joey, my precious baby. I'm sorry my love. I didn't mean it. I know this is so hard on you, this change. I was selfish, I didn't give you the space you needed."

"No Mum. I don't need space. I need you. I need my Mum. More than anything. I need you."

She kissed him and rubbed him and held him as close and as tight as she could, wiping and kissing away his tears.

Holding him in her arms, she felt his body change. He started to shrink and his chest began to grow and before he knew it, he was her again.

END OF PART THREE.

I know this chapter was a bit dark and mean spirited, but it needed to be, in order to convey Joey's mental confusion. It does brighten up from here on out though! Zoe.