Fiction: Or Else

Ogee Smith wasn’t trans; he just came back a girl. It happens all the time. Man in one life, woman in the next, somewhere in between in a third. Sometimes, the cosmic gears get all fuckowack and a body comes back wrong and spends a lifetime adjusting. But not Ogee. Ogee came back a girl, but he really hadn’t made the change yet.

And finding a shrink who understood? Ogee’s parents visited thirteen. When Ogee said, “I need to understand gender expectations because I used to be a boy,” the psychiatrists and psychologists started spouting codes.

So when she was eight, Ogee’s parents took her to a regression therapist. “The problem,” the regressionist said before putting Ogee under, “isn’t gender expectations. It’s that you don’t know who you were, so you can’t know who you are becoming.”

Ogee sat obediently still while the woman lit candles and began the hypnotic induction. But then, long after the child had been placed into what the regressionist called ‘the suggestible state’, Ogee suddenly giggled looked right through the woman. She said, “I’m not the one who’s most confused here. You are.” Then, Ogee turned to her parents and explained, “I am an image of an image of an image of myself, as we all are. This is her first life, poor thing. She’s doing this for others because she thinks she has something of her own back there to find. But there’s nothing really. Don’t worry dear,” Ogee hopped up and patted the therapist’s arm. “After a couple of go-rounds you’ll get a sense, as long as you leave yourself open.”

The little girl turned and walked out. “I think we’d better work this out ourselves,” she said to her parents. If I can remember how I shifted last time, I’m sure things will all start falling into place. Can we stop someplace with a toilet? I’ve got to piss like a racehorse before we get out of town.”

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About jesterqueen:
Jessie Powell is the Jester Queen. She likes to tell you about her dog, her kids, her fiction, and her blog, but not necessarily in that order.

Comments

Fiction: Or Else — 19 Comments

  1. "I’ve got to piss like a racehorse before we get out of town" – talk gender expectations. 😉 This is truly great. What a unique way of using the prompt and such a brilliant idea. I wish I'd had it. 😀

    • I was coming up dry on this one until this morning. I started off some horrible sonnet that went noplace. And then I got this oddball sentence lodged in my head and finally had someplace to go.

  2. Crazy stuff. Is Ogee actually a name?! I only know it from wandering around successive DIY stores trying to find a ogee moulding router bit! 😉

    • Yeah – I grew up in Appalachia and there's an Ogee back home. Odd name, but it struck me as perfect for this character.

  3. I can imagine this as a synopsis for a book that I'd love to read over and over and over again… very impressive!

  4. I love this one, Jessie. It flows and is super-tight. Not a word is wasted anywhere. It sucked me in immediately. I forgot I was reading.

    • Thanks Pamela! I love your blog name, by the way. I think it ending in pjs is utterly fun.

    • I was kind of going for the Macbeth Mirror shows the king thing, since that's the first thing that popped into my head with 'image'

  5. Great write as usual, jesterqueen. I agree with you, the name is perfect. I also agree with Satu — the line about the racehorse almost made me laugh out loud! Hope you'll join us for the weekend prompt

  6. Thanks Lance! This one was fun to write! I never know what's going to happen with a Trifecta prompt!

    • Now you've got me wondering what else Ogee might be doing. Or how to make this about 80,000 words longer.