Irish Eyes – Chapter Six

Twenty-four hours after the wake, Michael was buried. The ceremony went off with few people speaking to one another and many uneasy glances. Stephanie was filled with uncertainty. Gwen’s story about the girl that accompanied her just did not add up and Cael was once again conspicuous by his absence. She vowed to find out the truth as soon as the unpleasantness of attending her brother-in-law’s funeral was over. Cael had problems of her own with the entire Foley clan staring daggers at her through the proceedings. The only two allies she had were Brigid and Emma, and neither of them were in the position to help her out if the angry glares turned into something uglier. Fortunately, even with the latent hostility in the air, the burial went off without a single argument. It was a cheerless affair that all of the parties involved were glad to see come to its conclusion. The Foleys returned to Ireland and Cael was left to sort out the changes in her life once again. Everything returned to normal, or at least as normal as any of the days had been since her transformation.

That Saturday afternoon, Gwen found Cael dressed in the same dirty, oversized red t-shirt that she had worn for days before the wake. The problem of finding a new wardrobe for her daughter was certainly an important one, but Cael seemed perfectly content to lounge around the house all day. Her hair was starting to look like a bird’s nest again, which annoyed Gwen quite a deal, considering how much effort she had put into making it look good just days before. At least Cael was taking showers again. It was a small blessing, but Gwen knew that she had to take things one step at a time with the girl. She contemplated offering a Sunday outing where Cael could pick out some clothes in her size as well as get the haircut that she so desperately wanted. If she was not going to take care of her hair, Gwen figured there was no point in keeping it long. Unfortunately, Gwen had other problems to deal with before she could have a mother-daughter excursion, namely her sister. Stephanie was insistent that they needed to talk and a Saturday afternoon became the ideal time to do so.

“Cael, can’t you please put something else on? Your Aunt Stephanie is going to be here soon and I don’t want you looking like you’re living out of your laundry hamper.” Gwen pleaded.

Irish Eyes – Chapter Five

 

Welcome.

Cael stared at the blue and green swirls on her monitor, waiting for her computer to finish booting up. The PC was top of the line and way more than she ever needed, but her father had surprised her with it for getting a Scholar Athlete award the previous semester. All it was to her was something to do homework on, talk to friends and look at pictures of LOLCats. Really, she could have gotten by with a much cheaper model. None of this was currently at the forefront of her thoughts, however. It had only been two days since her father died and left her stuck in a body that was entirely alien to her. As a man in the prime of his youth, she of course had been fascinated to no ends by the female form just a week ago, but now that one stared back at her in the mirror everything was different. She was a frightened virgin again, nervous about what she would see underneath the thin layers of fabric. There were, of course, parts of her body that were constant reminders of what she would find, but she preferred to not think about it. Her body disgusted her, thus she still wore the same t-shirt and shorts that she had put on days earlier to talk with her mother. That conversation was still fresh in her memory and was the reason why she had started isolating herself.

Curiosity and a lack of human contact, however, drove her online. She wondered if there were other suffering like she was, trapped in the wrong body and tortured by the fact that there was nothing they could do to change it. She might have had a solution to her own problem in mind, but with an ocean between her and that answer, she might as well not have had one at all.

The screen finished loading and her instant messaging program popped up. She had it set up to sign on as soon as she turned her computer on, as normally she was more than willing to have a back and forth with one of her friends. Today was a little different. Even through the impersonality of the internet, she was not ready to talk to them. She thought maybe in the weeks to come, she could use this as a source to stay in touch without them having to see her, but she knew it was impractical to avoid them forever. Apparently, they were already quite aware of her absence, as indicated by her offline messages.

Irish Eyes – Chapter Four

 

Cael emerged from her bedroom wearing a St. Louis Cardinals t-shirt from their 2006 World Championship. It was two or three sizes too big for her body and draped over her like a blanket, its lower hem reaching her knees. The loose grey cotton shorts she had on were nearly covered by the length of the shirt. Her hair looked no better than it had when she changed, although she did wash stains off her cheeks. She looked like she had just woken up from a night of lovemaking and had thrown on her boyfriend’s clothes.

In the light of a fully-lit room, Gwen was even more amazed at her child’s appearance. Years of wondering what having a daughter would have been like came to their unintended fruition right before her eyes. Cael was absolutely beautiful, at least through Gwen’s mom-lenses. Even in her unkempt state, she could tell there was potential for Cael to be quite the pretty girl. She was taller than Gwen by a couple of inches, which had to make the newly christened female feel a lot better about her diminished height. Her legs looked absolutely great and wistfulness clouded Gwen’s mind as she tried to imagine Cael in a skirt and heels. Part of her knew that it was too soon to be having these fantasies. She still had a frightened and confused child on her hands that needed her support above all else, but after twenty years of perpetrating a lie she felt she was entitled to daydream about the possibility that this would bring her and Cael closer together.

“This is certainly going to take some getting used to, isn’t it?” Gwen remarked.

“I don’t want to get used to it, Mom. I want to find out why I’m like this so that I can change back. I have three months until I have to report to training camp.” Cael had a grimace on her face as she spoke. She wanted to get back to her life as soon as possible and at the moment and she assumed that her mother’s story would give her the information she needed to undo the transformation.

Gwen patted the cushion next to her. She needed her child close to her if she was going to relive one of her biggest regrets in life. Cael seemed to have other plans though and took a seat at the opposite end of the couch, leaving quite the buffer between herself and her mother.

“Is there anything you need before I start? Like most meaningful stories, this is going to be a long one.”

“I’m fine, Mom, or at least as good as I’m going to get with a pair of ripe mangoes strapped to my chest.” Cael replied in a snarky tone.

Irish Eyes – Chapter Three

 

This must be what it’s like to be on top of the world, Gwen Foley thought as she stood vigilantly over her husband’s comatose body like an emperor penguin watching over its egg in a winter storm. She watched Michael’s eyes, cold, closed to the world, waiting for any sign that the man she married was still inside. She desperately wished to see the warmth of the man that would do anything for his son, the man that swept her off her feet in college with his charming accent, the man that no matter how busy he got, always made sure to remind his wife that he loved her. The wretch before her was not this man. He was a stranger that shared all of her husband’s faults and none of his strengths. She thought, perhaps, that she was seeing him for the first time.

Good intentions could not make up for the fact that he was married more to his job than to her in recent years, nor could it make her forget the countless times that he missed the most important moments in Cael’s life. She had been the one that taught him how to read, how to tie his shoes, how to ride his first bike, how to drive. She was the one that took him to baseball practices, that made sure she was at every single one of his games, that sat beside him on draft day waiting for his name to be called. Most of all, she remembered the greatest mistake of their marriage. A dark cloud had come back to haunt their family and here she was left to deal with it on her own. How could Michael abandon her at such a critical moment? She wanted to place her hands around his throat and strangle him for leaving her with such a burden to carry.

Negativity was taking hold. There was no change in Michael’s condition for days and all the online research told her that the situation would become increasingly bleak the longer that it persisted. She wanted answers. She needed to know if she needed to start thinking about pulling the plug. It was not a pleasant thought, and it made Gwen a bit sick to think about ending a loved one’s life. She felt even guiltier when she wondered what would be best for her and Cael. Would prolonging his life delay the inevitable darkness or would it come no matter what she did?

Irish Eyes – Chapter Two

 

St. Canard was a landmark in Gateway. It was the first hospital operating in the city and due to the work of several preservation societies the entranceway remained a remnant of the Gothic architecture that once made up the entire complex. It allowed the building to retain a sliver of its dignity as a soulless piece of modern glass and concrete was erected around it. Thus, it had all the trappings of the contemporary hospital. The inside was cold and sterile in a way that reminded everybody that this was a place that people came to die. The emergency room lobby was full of poor, unfortunate souls, huddled together with an assortment of maladies. Only the most severe cases were making it through the doors tonight.

It was for this reason that Charlene, the nurse on desk duty, was in a cynical mood. She was dressed in her multi-colored scrubs that could easily be likened to a pair of children’s pajamas. The late shift brought in all the crazies, drunks, and drug addicts and it left the middle-aged woman with an attitude that was often thoughtless. Here she was tending to the dregs of society when she could be at home watching over her children. The only time people with a sympathetic story came in at this time of night, it was depressing as all Hell.

Cael Foley, whose father had just been in a severe accident, was thus left walking into a shit storm that he could not anticipate. Charlene grimaced as she caught the stench that only came from a night of heavy drinking. She did not want to deal with another idiotic sot and made it a point to cut the young man off before he could explain.

“Wait, don’t tell me! You and your friends were wasting away to Margaritaville when you decided to try a round of ‘Will it Blend?’ with your fingers?”