Wendy the Good Witch

Wendy the Good Witch

(or Brunettes with Perfect Eyesight)

By Sabrina G. Langton

***

Author's note: Sorry no Halloween story over here... This is kind of hard to explain. It has been brewing in the back of my mind, (You know, where that 27-year-old girl with the great legs resides,) for quite a while. A story about a family with secrets, that welcomes a couple of newcomers. Hope YOU like it...

***

"Hey Will, what's up? Try any good breweries lately?" My father was calling. I could tell he was in a good mood, I could tell he wanted to talk.

"Yeah, a lot, there is a great one right here in Princeton. It's right across from the college, we go there all the time." When I say we, I really meant me, but I didn't want to ruin his good mood.

"Ahh, that's good, no driving."

"Mmm."

My father lived an hour and a half away from me by car, but I didn't have a car so it was a three-and-a-half-hour trip by train. I didn't see him as much as I liked. After my mother died I very rarely went back to Manhattan to visit everyone. When I say everyone I really just meant my father and my sister's family. I told them all I was busy, and I was. I worked at the College all week, I worked in IT. On the weekends, well Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday were for me, just me.

"Well, the reason I am bothering you..."

"Ha, you are not bothering me, I'm just on my computer, listening to music."

"Well, I have a favor to ask you, you can say no, don't feel like you are obligated...'

I was surprised, my father and sister never ask me for anything, ever. My mother was the only needy one in the family. The rest of us were survivors, we were more than fine on our own. "No, it's okay. What, what do you need?"

"Well, as you know I met a woman, Justine. I know I told your mother I wouldn't try to meet anyone, but you know us Landon's we are all lovers, ha, not fighters, not much of anything else, ha."

"Mmm... that's what I have been told for years."

"Well, next weekend, Friday, I am taking her to dinner. It's our one-year anniversary."

"Wow, congratulations."

He laughed, he talked about all the things he loved about her, all the things he missed about mom, all the reasons Justine, and being with someone, was good for him. I agreed, I thought it was great, I knew he didn't need my input, blessing, or advice, I was just nervously waiting for him to ask me the favor. I was just the son he never saw, never bothered, and never invited to anything. And amazingly I was okay with that.

"Okay, so, her son, Daniel is coming with us. He's twenty-six, the same age as you."

"Mmm."

He's in from Chicago, he's moving back to the east coast. We are picking him up at the airport and then we are taking him to dinner with us, not as romantic as I planned but, what are you going to do."

"Three's a crowd."

"Exactly, that's what I was thinking. So I was wondering if I, um, could borrow Wendy for the night."

I swallowed a little too hard, I almost dropped the phone. "Really? Wendy? Why?"

"I don't know any young women, I asked your sister, Terese and of course, she was no help, well not at first. I just need someone, you know go out to dinner with us, keep him occupied. I will pay for a car to get her, I will even pay her for the night, you know, whatever she wants."

"Um, I will have to ask."

"Of course, it's fine. And if she says no that's fine too. No worries."

"Okay, I will call you back, I'll call her right now."

"Great, talk to you later, and thanks."

*

After I hung up I did drop the phone, I stood up, I paced, I hated favors. I THINK I hated them, but in reality, I didn't really care, no one ever asked for one before, I was quite on my own.

"Ugh!" I yelled to the empty room. I sat on the huge couch, I crossed my legs, I fixed my skirt. I started running my long nails through my long hair. "Ugh!" I would have to come up with something.

Twenty minutes later, I called him back. My father never asked me for anything ever. I moved to New Jersey when I was nineteen, I never looked back. Part of me felt they wanted to get rid of me, but another part of me felt like they thought this was the best idea in the world.

"Ugh!"

Ring. "Hey, dad."

"Yeah, what did she say?"

"She said sounds like fun, she's all in," I told him, I lied, my hands were shaking, my hair was in my face sticking to my lipgloss.

"Oh my god, that's great." He laughed, I could hear him talking to someone else. "I will send a car on Friday. Four o'clock, we have reservations at six."

"Oh, okay, I will tell her. What should she wear?" It was a question I never thought I would ask my father, ever.

"Tell her to get dressed up as much as she wants, I'm gonna wear a suit. Justine is a big one for wearing something new and expensive, heh. I have reservations at Boucherie in Union Square, it's really fancy, she will love it." And he laughed some more, he talked to someone else again. "Great, thank you, you don't know how much I am looking forward to this."

"Well don't thank me, thank Wendy."

"Ha, I will. Bye, talk to you soon. I will text with more details."

"Okay, bye." I hung up, I dropped the phone again. Thank god he didn't ask for her number.

***

Seven Years Ago...

"Aunt Gloria is finally going into a home." My mother was holding the phone to her chest. She was talking to the four of us, we were eating dinner. "She sounds so terrible, I feel so bad."

Aunt Gloria lived in New Jersey, my Mother said it was so far away from us. I could look out my bedroom window and see New Jersey, I could see the huge buildings in Newark, right across the river, they weren't that far away.

"Mom! Aunt Gloria doesn't live that far away," I called her while she was in the kitchen, she was still on the phone, she was giving someone else the bad news.

She came into my room, my tiny room on the fourteenth floor. We lived in Chelsea, we lived on West Twenty-Third street, my whole life revolved around my room. My whole world revolved around Chelsea.

"You know, I was thinking. You can go to Princeton, you got accepted, you can live in Aunt Gloria's house." She went back on the phone, she was discussing this plan with whomever she happened to call. She was watching me, I was getting fidgety. "You can move out at the end of August, she's got a small house it will be perfect for you."

"Really?"

"Of course."

"But I don't want to leave Chelsea." I sat next to her, my nineteenth birthday was in two weeks, maybe it was time for me to leave? Maybe I would love living alone? Hmmm, maybe I would grow to love New Jersey?

In September I was starting school in the computer science program, right before that, Aunt Gloria died. My mother couldn't believe she lasted through the summer in all that pain. The family came, we buried her at the cemetery three blocks away, we cleaned out the house of almost everything as my mother cried. We kept one piece of furniture and a dozen photo albums.

That weekend we moved, we painted, we fixed. There were two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and one and a half baths. There was a crawl space under the house and a tiny backyard behind it. There was a lovely, tiny little porch right inside the front door. The house was small, surrounded by blocks of other small houses, filled with people I would grow to love. It was perfect for Aunt Gloria, it turned out even more than perfect for me.

*

I hate even bringing this up but... I had a secret, it wasn't drugs, don't worry. Billy Tomlin on Eleven was on drugs, he did them on the stairwell, everyone saw him, it wasn't much of a secret. I had climbed over him a number of times. Leon on Twenty was a pyromaniac, his parents tried to keep it hush-hush but we all knew about it, he set fire to garbage cans, bushes, his brother, his cat. It wasn't much of a secret at all. Our next-door neighbor Mrs. Ramos went to jail, she kind of killed her husband, we never asked and the whole building knew about it. What kind of secret was that? I know my mother was dying to ask her all the time. Me I had a secret. no one knew, I kept it to myself.

Knock, knock, knock. That is how my mother knocked on my bedroom door, three quit raps. "Will are you busy?" She would pause, she would wait for me to answer. She always knocked, she knew I wasn't doing drugs, setting fires, she knew I didn't kill anyone. What she didn't know, well, what I hoped she didn't know was I wore girl's clothes. It was no big deal, it wasn't like I stole them or dressed up and paraded in the stairwell doing illicit drugs with Billy, it wasn't like I was in everybody's way. It was something I did alone in my little room in Chelsea.

"I am, I'll be right out." And in ten minutes or so I was out. I would hide all the things I was wearing, all the heels I had found at yard sales and flea markets, all the dresses and tops I got from Good Will or the Salvation Army, all the makeup I picked up for less than half price at the Korean deli. No one knew, well except for Mrs. Gwan in the deli, but she didn't speak English. I had this secret and I kept it well hidden. I really didn't understand why. You could be a pyromaniac, a murderer and everybody knew, a boy would wear heels and it was hidden in the closet, I didn't understand the big deal. I would keep it a secret anyway, I didn't want anyone to know, I didn't want anyone to make fun of me.

I went to Princeton, my secret was going to stay safe.

*

Once I settled in I had a closet full of outfits. I had all my dresses on hangers, all my heels in a shoe rack behind my closet door, and all my lingerie in a pale blue dresser I found in the garbage in the back of one of the dorms. I imagined I was just one of the coeds living their life, shopping and enjoying the cutesy, busy neighborhood. It was so different than Chelsea, but it had little dress shops, all types of places to buy makeup, and inexpensive trinkets and jewelry. It was also full of restaurants, Mexican, Chinese, Thai, and tons of burger and pizza places, the only thing it was missing was a Korean restaurant, that was the only thing I really missed. I didn't even miss the view from my bedroom anymore, I was quite used to the trees, flowers, and little spice garden I now tended in the yard.

I worked like crazy. I had seven different jobs in the four years I went to Princeton before they hired me full-time in the IT department. Every bit of money went to my female side, filled up my makeup case, or my vanity in my feminine bedroom. I had almost a complete wardrobe by the time I was a Sophomore, I had three mirrors, and a four-poster bed by the time I was a Junior. By the time I graduated you would have sworn a woman lived at 43 Maple Street, you would have seen her only on the weekends. She loved her little house, she loved her little town. If you wanted her to turn around, or if you wanted to see her smile you would just have to call her, just say hello.

"Good morning!" The neighbors would say.

"Good morning. Would you like something from the bakery, the soup shop, the gas station? Ha."

Wendy was around only on the weekends. She was popular with the neighbors. She was very friendly, she was a good witch.

***

"Hey Will I booked the car, everything is set."

"Okay."

My father called more this week than in the entire seven years I had been living in Princeton. He told me more about Justine, her family, even her son. "I don't want you being nervous about this, you know having her out with us."

"No, no it's okay. It'll be fine."

"Remember it's not a commitment it's just dinner. Hey, and call your sister every once in a while too."

"Oh, Okay, bye."

*

My older sister, Terese, well she... was nosy. She was the inquisitive one in the family. She was the one I really had to keep my secret from.

I visited, she told me, "I got some beer from a brewery in Brooklyn for you."

"Oh thanks, it looks great. I love the color."

I see Terese and her family three times a year. She lives in the Chelsea apartment, her daughter has my old room and view. I see them all on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and my niece's birthday. The three times I went back to New York City this year I also have seen Justine. The last time I talked to her was at April's second birthday party in March. She was a little early, April I mean, not Justine.

"Dad's got a new girlfriend." She called me last year. Terese never called me either. She would text constantly but never a call. When I get a call from her, I get nervous, I was always afraid someone died, or that Mrs. Ramos killed someone else.

"I think that's nice," I told her.

She made a strange noise, "Is it?"

"Mom has been gone for so long, I'm sure he is just lonely, I'm sure he's having fun."

"Fun? He is too old to have fun." She sent me pictures from the week before, she sent me pictures of Dad's new girlfriend. "Last week they were all here, I met her sister, her son, her sister's son, even her dog. I'm not liking this one bit." It was funny, she was acting so weird about it, but I figured it was because he was always at the apartment, Dad didn't really like being alone. He lived about twelve subway stops north of them now, maybe he was just missing the old neighborhood.

We were singing happy birthday, we were watching April open her presents, we were soon relaxing and drinking more beer on the couch and at the table. It was good, I knew I was leaving in about an hour I had to catch the train. I knew life would go on like it always did in this great apartment.

"Will?" I heard Terese, she was somewhere behind me."

"Yeah?"

"Who is this?"

I turned, she was holding up a phone. I squinted, I stood up. I suddenly couldn't breathe, I shook my head, Terese was holding my phone. She was showing me a picture. A woman in glasses, a black blouse, and a red and black flowered skirt was posing.

"Um," I took my phone back. "It's um, my girlfriend. I met her at the college."

"Really, well that explains why you have so many pictures of her." Terese giggled, she got up, she peered around me, she wanted to see more. I shut off the phone, I said I better get going, I went into the bathroom to pee... and dry heave. Once I had water on my face and mouthwash on my breath I returned to the family.

"Well, when do we get to meet this mystery woman?" My father was asking, he had a big smile on his face. "We both have beautiful girlfriends now." He smiled, he hugged Justine who was next to him.

"Maybe Thanksgiving?" Terese was watching me. She was watching me fidget, watching me get my flannel, watching me button it up. "Well, come on, what's her name?"

"Um, it's Wendy."

*

When I was dressed up I felt complete. I felt like I had all of the pieces to the puzzle, all of the spaces were filled in, all the edges were straight. Friday at two is when I got home for the weekend. I was three blocks from the college, three beautiful blocks, but I never noticed. I never really went anywhere during the week, I always saved my traipsing for the weekend, saved it all for when I was presenting female.

I took so many pictures. I loved posing in my new outfits, my old outfits, my new or old anything. I was constantly playing with my hair, holding my lipstick, or crossing my legs. I was always smiling at my camera or phone. I took all of the pictures and put them on my computer, I was constantly editing, tinting and cropping. I only kept some on my phone, I needed to be reminded how beautiful I could become, how happy I sometimes was.

My name was always Wendy, I had that name since I was young, I imagined I was a ghost, a witch, I could disappear. I wore a wig, usually something long. My own hair was long and strawberry blonde and all my wigs matched it as close as possible, but I could never get a style I was truly happy with, I would have to wear a wig, plus it was better, it would keep my secret safer. I also wore glasses. I figured it was good enough for Clark Kent it would work in the reverse for me, in the reverse gender.

I had at least ten different pairs of glasses and sunglasses, I thought I looked so cute. My eyes looked bigger, especially with the clear glass and false eyelashes, with my bright eyeshadow and perfect eyebrows.

I was 5'8" and quite curvy as long as I had padding on my hips and ass. I weighed about a hundred and forty-five pounds, I could fit into a women's medium, I was quite happy about that. My body was also completely hair free and my voice was quite light and feminine, I had the cutest giggle. I never worried about passing anymore, I didn't really worry at all. If someone knew I wasn't a hundred percent female they never said anything, and that was okay with me.

I went to the gym at school two to three times a week after work, then on Saturday morning, I went to the one in town, as Wendy. Sometimes I even went to pole dancing classes. I loved getting dressed up for them and the gym, I had so many different workout outfits. I had a couple of friends there and afterward, we all went out to a juice bar. We all talked about our jobs our favorite makeup brands. I smiled and shook my head when they talked about their family and boyfriends. I loved that they kept me involved.

Back in my white and maroon room, standing in the middle of my thick pink rug, surrounded by my flowered curtains and art prints I would stand in front of my mirror. I would drop my mint robe. My penis was tucked and held with a little bit of tape. I had on my breast forms, they were expensive, they were a size C. They matched my coloring perfectly. I had on my long acrylic nails, I would glide my fingers down my body, through my hair. I usually wore little diamond earrings in my pierced ears, I had on my big-frame femme glasses. I was getting ready to take a bath, I was getting ready to wash my hair. If I squinted, if I ignored the seam to my forms I would see a naked woman. I would smile. I would always look 'female' when I bathed or took a shower, I had been doing this since I moved in. I had my tub upgraded when I got my first bonus at work. The tub was huge, round, and had a couple of water jets. Usually, I threw in a bath bomb and soaked, it was so wonderful as I immersed myself. It's crazy to think of it, but my bath probably thought only a woman lived in the house.

Afterward, I would spend hours putting on my makeup, painting my nails, fixing my wig. I preferred something long, slightly streaked, something that would cover my boobs and reach at least the middle of my back. If I was going out to eat or go shopping I would put on a dress, pantyhose, high heels. If I was staying home I would wear something sexy, shorter or higher. I would slip on my glasses, I would look in my mirror. I would spray on my perfume. I was so pretty sometimes, I was quite lonely. I would sometimes talk to myself before I went out.

"Wendy? Mmm? is being a crossdresser making me gay?" I asked this question myself so much. I never had a sufficient answer. When I was in high school back in Chelsea I went out with so many girls. I had my first girlfriend when I was seventeen. I broke up with the next one when I moved to Princeton, my mother said it wouldn't be right to have a long-distance relationship. I never had a steady girlfriend again.

When I was at the college I dated so sporadically, so infrequently, even though I met and talked to so many of the girls in class. I never wanted to give up my weekends for a woman, I wanted to be a 'woman,' I didn't want to change back. One didn't understand at all, she was so angry when I told her I couldn't commit, I couldn't see her more than she wanted me to. She didn't understand why we couldn't go out on the weekends.

Last year I put up a female profile on a dating site, I wanted to meet someone. I spent half a day finding the right pictures, finding the right words. The box for gender I left blank. I pressed enter. I then got too nervous and didn't even check it. I knew people were looking at my profile, I was getting messages and emails, but I just didn't want to know. I had to get out of the house. I had to be among people and then I would look. I wanted to see how popular or unpopular I was on this site. I got all dressed up, something casual, a long tight sweater, black leggings my three-inch booties, and a denim jacket, I went to the coffee shop, I took my bag and laptop, I was just like all the other women alone on a Saturday night.