At first glance, there was nothing to show that this boy was Josie; until I looked at his face and saw the same unmistakable smile that I’d seen twice a week for the last year. He was tall; about 5’11” and surprisingly muscular. If I hadn’t known he was once a 5-year-old girl, I’d have pegged him for a football player.
Josie did another twirl; this time raising the robe enough that I caught a glimpse of his new anatomy. I brought an arm up to cover my eyes as I turned around, “Whoa there, Josie; I don’t need to see that.”
A look of confusion appeared on Josie’s face for a moment, until he realized what I was referring to. “I gots a pee-pee, Clay!”
“I can see that,” I said while trying desperately not to look at it. “Could you please sit down? If you showed it to somebody outside of here, you could get in trouble.”
I could see that Josie didn’t fully understand what I was saying, but he went ahead and sat in a chair opposite my bed. My parents started walking towards the door, as my mom said, “We’ll give you two some privacy.”
I hoped to say something once my parents had left the room, but Josie beat me to it. “You’re a pretty girl, Clay.”
“Thanks, I guess,” I said while squirming uncomfortably in my bed. “I don’t know how you’re so calm about this; especially since this isn’t what we asked for.”
“Who cares if I’m a boy now; I can finally walk again,” Josie said as he looked at me. “There’s nothing wrong with being a girl, Clay. You might enjoy it.”
As I sat there listening to Josie, I realized she was right about one thing. I may have been turned into a little girl, but I was no longer suffering from muscular dystrophy. “I suppose it all depends on how you look at the situation; maybe I should just enjoy the fact that I’m not stuck in a wheelchair anymore. As for being a girl, I can only hope this is temporary.”
Josie’s attention was drawn to his new appendage. To my surprise, he started to play with it right in front of me. “Whoa, look what this does!” he said excitedly.
“Seriously Josie, you have to stop that!” I said as I threw a pillow at him, “If we were anywhere else, you’d be arrested for exposing yourself to a child.”
Josie stopped what he was doing, looking at me like I’d just taken away his favorite toy. “But it’s fun!”
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine I’d be in this situation; where I’d have to tell a 5-year-old girl, who’d been turned into a boy, about masturbating. “Look, Josie; there’s nothing wrong with what you’re doing,” I said before taking a deep breath. “It’s just not appropriate to do around other people, least of all a young child. You’re more than welcome to play around as much as you’d like when you’re alone.”
“Fine,” Josie said as he started to pout.
Neither of us spoke after that; instead, we sat in silence until our parents returned with Doctor Holmes.