The Greatest Lie Part 14

"I'm sorry if it freaks you out."

"It doesn't freak me out. I'm just surprised."

We rode in silence for a few long blocks, and when traffic permitted he shot me some quizzical looks. Finally, I broke the silence and chided him, "I'm sorry if you're disappointed that I'm not a she-male any more. I guess that's what you must have been into it for last year."

"No, that's not it, I just don't know what to say. I mean, I'm really happy for you: that you got what you wanted, to be a girl, and you came out really beautiful. And I'm glad, because it makes you more, like, normal, even though I was fine being with you before, but now I guess it's even better. But I was just having trouble figuring out how to say all of that, and now I'm worried I hurt your feelings."

"Well, you almost did. I can't stand being treated like a carnival freak," I said sadly.

"It's not that, it's just that you don't exactly make it easy to figure you out. You're like, a beautiful mystery woman. So help me figure out the mystery."

"OK, right after high school finished, I went straight to college. No one knew me there, so I started living as a girl part time, and then I got sick, and had to have an operation that ended up with me being, well, castrated."

"Oh, my God," he interjected.

"Don't worry, they got all of the cancer, but after that I decided that I should just go all of the way and have a full sex change. I mean, I was pretty sure I was going that way anyhow. So that's why I made the movie with Miguel: to get money for the operation. I had it in Thailand because it's cheaper there. But it's not done, and I'm on my way back to Thailand to get it finished. I had to stop here to get some paperwork done, and I'm leaving in a couple of days, and then I'll probably just disappear forever."

"Don't do that. I don't want to lose you again. Plus, you should check in on a few people, let them see how great you look. You got it, you might as well flaunt it," Seth said.