The Greatest Lie Part 10

I told my mom, and at first she didn’t believe me. But when Father Tom kept on doing it, she figured it out, and then we stopped going to his Church. But I still wanted to be a girl, and I prayed to God every day to make me a girl, but it didn’t work, of course, so I dressed up in my sister’s clothes, and cried all the time. She saw something on Oprah about transsexuals, and then she gave me her birth control pills, told me that god had made a mistake, and had made me boy on outside and girl on inside, that it was not my fault. She said that the pills could make me a girl and fix god’s mistake. But my dad said it was all my fault, that I was a homo and had made the priest turn homo. Then he left me and my mom. He was so ashamed of me. Now I am a girl, no more church, no more god, no more dad, and no more Father Tom.

"Tran, have you or your mom ever told anyone else about this?"

"No, I always try to forget, my mom and I can’t talk about it, it’s embarrassing."

"Tran, you are going to have to talk to my law school friend, Mark about this. I think you are going to be pretty rich some day thanks to Father Tom."

"What do you mean?"

"You’ll sue the Church and get a big settlement. My law school friends will help you."

"Now that I’m TS, people won’t think it’s my fault?"

"Not after my friend Mark and Professor Epstein get done with the case." Visions of another easy independent study class, with possible grant money, filled my head.

"Allie, you’re the best friend. First, you show me how to become woman, now how to become rich bitch."

"We’re not either one yet, but we will be. I know it."

In the meantime, we felt pretty rich. We were in Thailand’s rainy season, so hotel rooms in Koh Samui were cheap and available. Everything is pretty reasonable in Thailand, so we were soon well equipped with skimpy tropical dresses, high-heeled sandals, and had been manicured, pedicured and had our hair blown out.