Yeah! One more great tale of yours!
hugs.
Silvia.

I have read this story about four times and am currently reading it again.  The one thing that keeps bothering me is the dialogue the mother has with Jamie at the beginning.  Here is a fourteen year old changed to a ten year old and the mother is talking to him/her like a six year old and having Jamie skipping across the parking lot like a six year old.  I have reared a son and a daughter and I can tell you that a ten year old daughter does not go skipping across a parking lot.  This just is out of place for the story line.  I did find the story entertaining or I would not be reading it for the fifth time.  I would like to see the author editing it to put a better dialogue into the beginning of "her" new life.   Just a suggestion mind you.

I don't know why I keep being drawn back to this story every couple of years.  Probably it's for the same reason I'm drawn back to read Poe.  I like a lot of your work, Karen, and, while I know you don't consider yourself to have written a masterfully chilling horror story here, for me comparing this to Poe's "Cask of Amontillado" is given as a compliment.  I can imagine Jim Fortunato, chained in his own mind as mom utters those command phrases putting in to place the last bricks of forced mental femininity, "For the love of God, mother!" and mom smiling sweetly, ignoring everything but her own desires and convienience, and saying, "Yes, darling, for the love of God" right before uttering the last command phrase.

Will there even BE a mental Jim left at age 23 (18) capable of making a decision on whether to remain a girl or not?  Mom certainly seems to hope not - her avowed aim is to use hypnotism and hormones to so thouroughly brainwash him that he will finally so think of himself as only a loving, happy - let's not forget obedient - 9 year old stepford daughter that she won't need them for that anymore.  Her son will be dead in that walled up prison in his mind for lack of care and nurturing, and she can afford to let the walls be torn down.  And even if he did manage to hang on mentally to his male identity, if there was enough of him left to decide to be a man again, mom's statement that everything will be reversable is an outright lie.  After nine years of female hormones and going through female puberty, he will at least have been chemically castrated for quite some time and his bone structure, since they have apparantly gotten to him before his male puberty has kicked in, will be female.  

And all for standing up for himself while his mom, the educational system, and the judicial system side with the bullies.    

I just read this again, through mom's power trip when Jim got annoying by being honest.  I didn't realize till then that this was a story I'd read before.  I stick by my comments of last October, but this isn't really about the story, but about the readership.  I also read with interest the other comments, particularly Angie "Kit'n"  Hughes:

<<  Oh... My... Gods...  That was absolutely the most beautiful life I have ever lived in the span of an evening...  I cried several times, from jealousy, happiness ... I only wish my own stories had this much heart and soul in them, ...  But reading uplifting works like this ...  >>

It is just so amazing to me the wide and diverse readership for these stories, that Angie and I can both appreciate the story, just that she sees it as sort of a love story; an uplifting story full of heart and soul creating a beautiful happy life of femininity for Jamie, while I see it as a horror story ; a story of power abused, rights violated, and the wrong person punished in one of the most horrible ways I can concieve of,  imprisoned in his own mind, worse than a quadraphalegic, for Jim.

First, let me say this was a well written story that held my interest from beginning to end.  It involved me enough to make me mad enough that although I love all things feminine myself, I was rooting for Jim, not Jamie;  Great story.  Here's why it made me mad:

No one took into account that Jim had been provoked into doing all that he did, that he was, in fact, defending himself, striking back at bullies?  No one thought maybe THEY should be punished?  No, our wonderful criminal justice system just persecu ... oh, I mean prosectuted the innocent, let the guilty go free, and turned him over to a bitch mom who was willing to brainwash her own son.  I think that the worst part was this exchange:

<<  "Tell me you honestly don’t like the way you feel right now Jamie." Mom pressed. "Try to tell me that you don’t like the way your panties feel and that you really don’t like feeling the cool air as it swirls under your dress."
     "I don’t like it mom," I screamed, amazed that I had gotten away with it. "I don’t want to be a girl, get me out of this stuff!" ...
     Mom shook her head in dismay. ... Mom said something , then she smiled at me and I immediately calmed down. ... "Good girl," Mom exclaimed happily. "I knew you’d love the way your new clothes felt.  >>

Obviously not the answer she expected, but did she really think, given the chance to be honest and given his recent history of being mentally controlled, he'd answer that he liked it???  What dream world was she in???  And when she didn't get the response she wanted, she just tweaked his mind till she did.
 
And then:

<< "The arrangement with the court is until you graduate from High School." Mrs. Donigan told me. "At that time you can make your own decision as to whether or not you want to be a male again." >>
 
Some choice he'd have with them stacking the deck against "him" for 8 years!

My ending would have been that he was able to tuck his true self into a corner of his mind  till the 8 years were up and on his graduation night he tells his thouroughly fooled, thouroughly happy mom who had thought for years now that her plan had worked and that she had a thouroughly feminine loving daughter, "I'm Jim.  I'm going back to being Jim.  I hate you for what you've done to me, bitch."  He walks out and never speaks to her again.  Hopefully he breaks her heart doing so.

Mostly, though, this is an idictment of an educational and a justice system that punished the wrong person.



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very good story I would have liked a bit more of then enforced aspect
I will look out for more of your work well done keep upthe good work

Sick, and awful- that Mother should have been dragged to court and put in jail.  The son should have ben placed in a foster home with people that understood and would try to help him .  That poor kid{{ }}}.

Oh... My... Gods...  That was absolutely the most beautiful life I have ever lived in the span of an evening...  I cried several times, from jealousy, happiness, and especially when Kenny first found out Jamie's secret...  I only wish my own stories had this much heart and soul in them, I would be selling books by the millions!  You have quite a talent here, if this is indicative of your other writings, please keep writing like this!
My only other comment is, I wish it were that easy.  I wish someone else could do the work of making who I am inside come out, I'm not doing the best job of coaxing her out myself.  But reading uplifting works like this and with the help of my loved ones, maybe I can have such a happy story as my autobio!
Anyway, thanks, I will keep watch out for more of your work, kay?

Hugs,
Angie