TYRONE, DID HE SOMEHOW FUSE WITH HIS WIFE? THAT PRIEST EVIDENTLY FORCED HIM TO HAVE SEX. I DO NOT KNOW WHERE YOU GOT THIS STORY, BUT IT IS VERY DISTURBING TO ME, BUT THEN DEATH IS ALWAYS DISTURBING TO ME.

TYRONE, ANGEL WAS THE PRETTIEST ONE IN THE STORY. HE LOOKED GREAT IN HIS ANGEL GOWN. WAS THAT A REAL GIRL THAT PORTRAYED ANGEL OR A GUY IN A DRESS? I LOVED THE STORY. AND GWEN IS A MUCH MORE DANGEROUS MAN THAN ANGEL. DID ANGEL ACTUALLY HAVE ORAL SEX WITH THAT MAN THAT GAVE HIM THOSE HICKIES?

A shock to the system ... yeah, they do shape a life, if you can call it that. His priest, my grandfather with his hand down my diaper. Beat up in grade school frequently (and a few times by good-ol' dad), shunned by everybody. Mom who's angry at men because granddad did her, too, when she was little. Neighborhood kids chasing me up a tree and then reaching up with twigs loaded with dog excrement, to deposit it on my clothing. Never lost a wife; haven't hardly had any girlfriends. Recently lost a rare thing, though-- a friend, who was male, passed away this year. Rare, because I seem to have little in common with most men.

Yeah, they shape a life. Hospitals and clinics and eeg's and a diagnosis of autism ("...and throw away the key!") somewhere around age 4-6, a lifetime of therapy, crossdressing shortly after I left home, hospital on a 5150, more therapy...

I never forget how lucky I am, though-- without Social Security and HUD subsidized housing, I'd likely be living on the streets. And I certainly wouldn't have my soft, safe place: here in my room, in my recliner chair, in my skirts and (sometimes) heels, old notebook computer perched on a folding table next to the chair, reading TG fiction so that I can forget about myself and live someone else's life for a while ... because I know for sure my life would've been better if I'd been a girl. For one thing, I probably wouldn't have been left with granddad...

Wow.

How does one analyze this? A journey of emotions interwoven and loosely connected, not embellished enough to make what most would call a story, but a stripped down naked view into something both horrific and intensely personal. Just the bare essential facts to get the point across.

It's much more poetry than prose. I'm still reeling from the message. Without speaking the details, it clarifies a few conversations on the net and gives a whole lot of insight into some of your other stories.

Congratulations on a fine story doesn't quite cut it in this case. To any readers who are thinking of reading this: Read it. Don't even try to follow it; just feel it.

-Aardvark

A moving and powerful story, told with an economy of statement rivaling poetry.  It brought tears to my eyes.  Thank you for so beautiful and eloquent a tale, which I suspect has a touch of personal experience.

This is a deceptively yet intensely emotional story.  I'm not sure how you did it, but in a few short pages you made me variously want to weep bitterly, cry with joy, shriek in horror, and to console you and your beloved.  Too, you did it with the merest of clues and the briefest of images, and with a reader who, if she is honest with herself, will admit she cannot really commiserate through shared experiences.  I am stunned to the point I can barely write this.