They also said that she talked about me all the time. I very much appreciated their being there at the hospital and their concern about Marnie.It wasn...t very long before the doctor I'd seen when I first arrived came out of Marnie's ICU room. He really didn't have to say anything; the expression on his face told me what I didn't want to hear in actual words."How long?" I asked him."I'm sorry, not very. Although she's awake her body is shutting down and there's nothing we can do about it. She. Peter turned out to be a bit of a wimp. He wasonly short, not even as tall as her five feet seven inches and whathad been the clincher to marry him, i.e., his easy going and kindmanner was beginning to grate on her now. He just agreed witheverything she wanted but never seemed to have the drive or manlyaggression. What she loved at first, his gentle way of handling her,she would swap in an instant for some he-man to sweep her off herfeet and give her rough sex. Perhaps, she thought, she. She insisted on "goingDutch" since it had been her idea to have dinner and my arguments got menowhere so we settled up, left and ended up sitting in my car.We were no sooner alone than the tears came and I held her as she sobbedon my shoulder.Gradually it came out. They had hounded her brother unmercifully. Faggot,queer, sissy; he got it all. Then just before the graduation dance, shefound out later, they sent him a catalogue from a dress shop and a notetelling him to pick out something to. He looked kinda strained, and there was a vein bulging in his forehead that didn't look healthy in the least. Well, how does he think I feel? I have been a boy for 12 years, this is seriously going to ruin my life. just wait till everyone at school sees me now, and my parents want me to look like a good little muslim girl, and wear a headdress just like my mother does, I told her that I didn't want to and, besides, this is the nineties, muslim girls don't need to do that anymore, she said that.