The Whyte Butterfly Ch. 10

"Just where do you think you're going, young lady! We're not done here!" Elaine shouted on the run as she followed Benita into her bedroom.

"I have school!" Benita shouted as she grasped her shoulder-bag and walked towards the door of her bedroom.

"We need to talk about this!" Elaine shouted as she followed Benita out of her bedroom.

"I have nothing left to say to you, Mother!" Benita said as she continued to walk towards the door of the apartment. "I've told you everything that's going on with me. I was tired of lying and leading a double life. You know who and what I am, I won't change, not for you or anyone else!" Benita said as she slammed the door behind her and Suki.

Elaine walked back to the dining room and stewed, she was no less angry and needed and outlet for her anger. As usual, the safe target for her undirected anger was her husband.

"Well, YOU were a lot of help!" Elaine snorted as she entered the room.

"I didn't get much of an opportunity to speak, as usual," Chris scoffed back.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Elaine said as she strode over to where Chris was sitting and stood tall next to him.

Chris just looked up at his wife, took note of her "dominant" stance, and shook his head in dismissive disgust.

"You always fly off the handle and then are left to wonder why she storms off," Chris said calmly and with a disappointed tone of voice.

"Well, what am I supposed to do?" Elaine retorted in angry disgust.

"Listen to her for once," Chris said in angry disappointment.

"I do listen to her! She just doesn't make any sense!" Elaine scoffed back.

"Look. I don't like this any more than you do. The fact remains that while this is new to us it is not new to her. She sat there and told us not only who and what she is now, but what happened to her to shape her into the person that she is. She did that not to brag or shock us but so we could understand her . . . accept her," Chris said in a steady and calm tone, a tone he always used to calm, his wife down.

"Accept her!" Elaine scoffed. "Accept that MY DAUGHTER has a PENIS? Accept that MY daughter is now a LESBIAN? Are you out of your mind?" Elaine said as she leaned in, trying to intimidate Chris, but it did not affect him.

"She has accepted who and what she is. She's happy and she's found someone who makes her happy and accepts her for who and what she is," Chris said in the same calm tone but his tone slowly got firmer. Chris stood up before he continued. "You can either accept her for who and what she is and continue to have a relationship with your daughter or you can push her away." Chris said in a firm yet friendly tone before he wiped his mouth with his napkin. "The one thing you can't do is change her into what you want her to be. If you try, you'll lose," Chris said and tossed his napkin on his plate and left the table.

Elaine never spoke; she just stared off to nowhere as she sank down into the nearest chair, deep in thought.