A Brief History of Tina

"Timothy, I am glad you came down. And I am glad this " - he looked me over, acknowledging my incongruous appearance - "is out in the open."

I shuffled slightly in my seat, nervously. I was a guest in this house and I had abused the hospitality offered to me. I wondered how Uncle Jack was taking this so calmly.

"Right, let me say what I need to say".

Here it comes, I thought, shuffling even more, and for once not really enjoying the thrill as my skirt rode up to expose my thighs.

"I can't pretend not to be concerned about this. But you may be wondering just why I am taking this so calmly."

Was Uncle Jack a mind-reader?

"But when you dashed past me to go upstairs, and I properly realised what was going on, I was annoyed - for about 15 seconds. And then I remembered something your Aunt Jean and I discussed during her last few weeks. Basically it gave me a whole new outlook on life, in one short sentence, it dictated how we spent our remaining weeks together."

I waited, wondering what Uncle Jack was going to say.

"In simple terms, life is too short, if there is something you really want to do, go for it!"

We spent nearly half an hour talking about the situation, why I did what I did, what I felt like, was I gay, did I ever go out dressed and so on. At the end of it I was much more relaxed, it had been really weird at first discussing such things with another person, specially Uncle Jack. But I did feel much more relaxed. I had assured him that in no way would I embarrass him by going out dressed, in fact I never had, until that day absolutely no-one had ever seen me 'dressed'.

"OK then, Timothy. It's beginning to get late and I have to be up in the morning. But first - like I said, if you want to do something you should really go for it. So. Before we turn in, how about letting me have a proper look at my 'niece'? Go on back up while I clear things down here, put on your wig and re-fix your makeup, let me see just what - or rather who - we have been talking about."