Dressed for Disaster: The Sequel

Emotionally and mentally, she was something else entirely. Neither male nor female, a lost soul, as surely as if she had died in her hotel room three months ago in New York. As far as the world was concerned, that is what had happened to Patrick Summers that day, and she intended to keep it that way. Better to be remembered as a dead hero than to be revealed as an unwilling transsexual.

After a quick shower in the grungy hotel tub, Pat went through the motions of dressing and putting on her makeup. When she was a man, this had always been exciting. Now it would be her daily routine for the rest of her life, and the prospect bored her. She slipped into a pair of cotton panties and strapped a bra around her fine breasts. After blow-drying her hair and combing it into an attractive shag, she sat on the edge of the bed and pulled on a pair of pantyhose. A slip and a white uniform dress followed, and she stepped into a pair of flats before standing at the dresser mirror and applying lipstick and mascara. A few final flourishes, and she was ready to face the world.

As she buttoned up her inexpensive overcoat, she surveyed herself again in the mirror. A handsome woman, people would say, not beautiful, but pretty. Not that it mattered. Pat was utterly unattracted to men, and incapable of sexual arousal in any case. Whether Dr. Frankenwiener had botched that aspect of Pat's operation, or whether she was wired differently from other transsexuals, orgasm was quite impossible. She still found women attractive, but her inability to do anything about it only added to her frustration.

She walked out onto State Street and turned north towards the Gold Coast. Her wife and daughter, flush with insurance money, had moved into a smart new townhouse, and Pat had a few minutes before her shift to try to catch a glimpse of them. Although she had fantasized about it many times, she had no intention of coming back from the dead. Better they remember Patrick Summers as he was.

Perhaps Pat's wife might have accepted Patricia, and they could have lived together as sisters.