We caught a red-eye flight to San Francisco, so we had a little bit of extra time before we left. It ended up being a good thing that we did, because I read through a lot of this blog, which helped me with a few things. Apparently, we're the final block of the year, before the inn shuts down for winter. That means that our bodies will be in limbo until it reopens. This is good news, because it means that we don't have to spend as long in these bodies as we'd feared, and nobody else is going to screw up our lives, or worse, run away with our bodies. We just have to reserve the same room next year as soon as the inn starts taking reservations.
Knowing this, we decided to take our phones, so that we can at least text people. 6 months is still a long time to be missing, and we don't want anyone going to the police to file missing persons reports. We also took our keys, just in case we needed to go back to Indy for something, and didn't write letters for the next people. I did email my ex-wife and my daughter to tell them that I wasn't going to be contactable for a while. As I almost expected, neither of them responded. The divorce was quite bitter and my ex first got custody of my daughter. My daughter was 12 at the time, and my ex told her a lot of lies about me, to the point that she wanted nothing to do with me. She's 14 now, and I haven't seen her in a couple of years. I hope we can reconnect sometime in the future and she hears my side of the story, but I have to accept that it's probably not happening any time soon. Luckily I work for myself, and most of that involves driving around, fixing locks or letting people into their own homes after they lock themselves out, so I don't have a lot of expenses if I shut it down.
As soon as we got to the airport, I needed to pee. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, and not even worth mentioning here. But when you look like a man, but have a vagina, it can be terrifying. Logically, I knew that I could just go to a stall and pee, and nobody would care, because I look like a man. But I couldn't help worrying that somehow, someone would find out. Of course, nobody did, but it's not something I ever thought I would have to worry about.
I couldn't sleep on the flight - there was just too much going on in my head. I didn't talk to Shane a lot. He seemed to be preoccupied with his own thoughts, and I don't think he really slept either. We took an Uber to "our" appartment and let ourselves in. It's nice and neat, and not too big. It has 2 bedrooms - one is obviously a guest room, which is now my room.
We spent the next few days trying to get settled into these lives. The video on my phone from the original Chris showed him as a man in his 50s. They had become husband and wife, and whilst it seems that Chris was excited to be a "real" man, he and Sylvia had also lost 30 years of their lives, if they wanted to keep those bodies. He wasn't sure that he wanted this trade-off, so their intention at the moment is to come back to their original lives. She talked a bit about their history as well. In short, Sylvia is bisexual and got together with Chris as lesbians when they were both women. A few years later, Chris came out as trans and had a sex change. Apparently, I have to have weekly hormone injections now, or I'll start getting periods. It's all a bit much to process. I've never known anyone who had a sex change or was gay, and now I've actually become a person who was gay and then had a sex change. When I asked Shane about what he saw on Sylvia's video, he said that she only spoke about the cafe.
Speaking of which...they did us a big favor after they changed and posted on their social media that the cafe would be shut until October 1. This gives us a few days to settle in and to also learn how to run this business. There are extensive spreadsheets that give us all the information we need, and we have Craig, a part time employee, as well as Cindy, a casual worker who can jump in and help if someone can't work, so I'm hopeful it will be OK. We had a look at it, and it seems nice enough in what looks like a happening part of the city.
The other night, during dinner, we were talking about these lives and Shane suddenly said: "You know, when we first changed, I thought you were the lucky one, because you get to stay male. And that would be true if we were stuck like this forever. But we're not - we should be able to easily get our bodies back in a little more than half a year. I can get a whole different experience that comes with being the opposite sex, that you can't. So I'm going to try to experience it as best as I can, and I don't want you to get weirded out when I wear make-up or skirts. I just want to try it and next year we go back to being ourselves again. I would kick myself if I didn't use this as an opportunity to learn something."
Wow....I didn't see that coming. Shane has always been pretty macho. There's not much of a feminine side to him, and since we've occupied these bodies, Shane has seemed very self conscious, and worn clothes as gender neutral as possible. He's tied his hair back into a ponytail, and worn no make-up. I think he's only worn a bra when it was absolutely necessary. "Is this something you've wanted to do before?" "No" he replied. "But haven't you ever wondered what it's like for women? It's less than a year, and in this body, I'm not going to be doing anything that doesn't look normal. I'm not comfortable in this body, so I may as well at least try to dress and act like a normal woman, and who knows, maybe I'll get a little more comfortable over time. I'm really comfortable being me...being in Shane's body and I can't wait to get back, so don't worry about that"
I could see where he was coming from, but I was happy not to be in his position. I may not have a penis in this body, but I have no desire to look like or be treated as a woman. I'm genuinely curious to see how he's going to do this. "OK. I get it, and I'll try to work with you. When do you plan on starting this?" "Well...." he replied "We've been cooped up here every night since we arrived, so I thought that maybe we go out for a drink somewhere. There's a little bar not far from here that we could walk to." I shrugged my shoulders and said "Sure. Why not?"
So after dinner, Shane disappeared into his room for probably an hour. When he finally reemerged, he was wearing a dark blue dress that was quite modest, showing no cleavage and going to just below his knees, and a small white cardigan over the top. His hair was still in a ponytail, and he wasn't wearing any make-up. He was wearing small hoop earrings and a nose ring. I didn't realise that his nose was even pierced. He has a pretty face, and he looked more than presentable, even without make-up. I gave him a thumbs up for approval, and he found himself some black flats that he slipped on. We were just about to leave when he rushed back to his room again. He came out 5 minutes later with a black purse slung over his shoulder. "No pockets" he said as we left.
The bar was about a 15 minute walk away, and as we were walking, I asked if he was OK. "I feel strange" he said "I was going to wear a skirt, but I didn't know which tops would go with them. She has a lot of clothes, and I got confused. I went with a dress because then I didn't have to make that decision. Also, I'm wearing pantyhose, and I don't know if they're sitting right, because I don't know how they're supposed to feel. I wasn't planning on wearing any, but when I put just the dress on, I felt almost naked. This makes me feel less exposed, and it's also getting cold at night, so I thought they might help. It still feels like my panties are going up my crotch and again, I dont know if that's normal. I can't do make-up or hair yet, and I figure I should wear the nose ring, because Sylvia wore it and I don't want the hole to close up. That and the earrings are quite easy to put in. I don't know if any of it matches what I'm wearing." I just assured him that he looked fine.
Being midweek, it wasn't very busy, so we easily found a table and ordered drinks. At the beginning of the night, Shane seemed very self-conscious. He tugged his dress down constantly, and occasionally adjusting his bra. I had to remind him to keep his legs together a few times as well. But over time, he relaxed more and more, which was good. We had a couple of moments were we both needed to use the restroom. Luckily they had a stall that wasn't too bad, and Shane seemed reluctant to go to the ladies. But by the time we left, we were joking and laughing as we always did - helped by the fact that we had a few drinks.
We got home quite late, but opened another couple of beers and sat and talked for a while longer. It's a surreal experience, but I think we're both grateful that we don't have to go through it on our own.
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