A Journey of a Thousand Miles

It's not very often you get a front row seat to history, especially when you’re just a normal teenage boy.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Marty Long, and I live in a small town on the Canadian side of the border of the United States.

And history, at least in this case, came in the form of my best friend, David.

He came to school one day, looking like he hadn’t slept.

So during lunch, I asked him about it.

“My mom and my sister had a big blowup last night.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“Mom found out Sara has not been wearing underwear for a while.” David answered.

“Wait, your sister has been going commando? I knew I liked her.” I replied

“Quit imagining my sister without clothes on, it's gross” David instructed me.

“No, you imagining your sister without clothes on would be gross. Me doing it proves I am a normal heterosexual teenage boy.” I told him.

“Fine,” He sighed, “Anyway, mom tried to fix the problem by taking Sara to some super expensive underwear place.”

“And did that work?”

“Just the opposite, when Sara got home, she threw the bags of stuff mom had bought her in MY room, of all places.”

“But how does that explain why you got no sleep?” I asked.

He blushed, and said, “Well, don’t tell anybody, but I couldn’t stop thinking about them. I kept thinking that to be worth that much money, they had to ... I don’t know, feel good don't they?”

“So are you telling me ...” I asked.

“Yeah, I’m wearing a pair of panties right now.”

“You’re braver than I am, or maybe just crazier’ I said, shaking my head.

“Well, it's not like anybody could tell. I don’t have PE this term, so I’m not changing, and I just use the stalls for going to the bathroom.”

“Okay, well, I’m almost afraid to ask if you’ve learned anything from this experiment.” I said.

“I ... I don’t have the words.” he replied, looking glum.

“Well, maybe see Ms Bryce, our school councilor” I told him.

“Maybe I will,” he replied, and then we had to return to class.

I didn’t get much chance to talk to him after that, at least not privately, but based on his demeanour, this experiment of his, and maybe opening up to me about it, were putting a strain on him, I got the feeling a bill was going to come due, and soon, and I vowed to be there for him when it did, if he would let me.

The last time I saw him that day was when I was heading home after class, and he was heading for Ms Bryce’s office.

When he didn’t come to school the next day, I got very worried. I tried calling him, but all I got was a message that said “Wait”.

The next day was Saturday, and I got a text asking me to come over to David’s house. That wasn’t abnormal, but the message also included a quote from one of our favorite video games, Half-life.

The quote went “Prepare for unforeseen consequences”

So after breakfast I went over, trying to feel as ready for anything as I could.

Turned out, I wasn’t prepared for anything, or at least not as prepared as I hoped.

David’s mom answered the door, and sitting at their kitchen table was his sister and a girl I didn’t immediately recognize.

Then she said “Hi, Marty, welcome to the future”

I tried to form words, but my mouth stopped working, I finally stammered out “D . . . David?”

She giggled, stood up, came over to me and held out her hand and said “No, not David. I guess I need to introduce myself. I’m Amy.”

“But ... how?” I managed.

“Well, to start with, the whole fight between my sister and my mother was staged, to see if their instincts about me were true. And .. Well, they were right. Putting on a pair of panties unlocked a door inside my head I hadn’t been willing to even acknowledge as existing before. It just clicked into place like hitting the last number on a combination lock. And inside, there was Amy, waiting for me to finally make the move.”

And as she spoke, something similar happened to me. Little clues about what had been going on suddenly made sense. So I took her hand, and said, “Nice to meet you, Amy. But I think I may have seen you before, without realizing it.”

She didn’t reply right away, and so we just held hands and looked at each other. To me, she seemed both familiar and brand new.

The biggest difference would be the hardest to describe. There was a sparkle in her eyes, a lightness in her posture, a sense of joy radiating out of her that made me want to just bathe in it.

Finally, I asked, “what now? Are you coming back to school as Amy?”

“Not right away,” she replied, "there are doctors to certify my status, and then perhaps some kind of negotiation with the school. But I hope I can sooner rather than later.”

I grinned and said, “I guess you can only go one step at a time”

“Which is how all journeys begin, or so they say” she stated.

*****

And that was the beginning, of how my friend made history, and how I was lucky enough to be beside her, as her journey began with that single step . . .

End