"My twelve year old brother and three of his friends had heard me scream and came running. When they saw the guy hit me, all four of them began shouti...g and swinging their baseball bats."They hit the guy in the head so hard he staggered off me. The kids continued their attack, smacking his knees, ankles and arms until he limped out the back of the lot and into the alley. They never did find the asshole."Thankfully my brother yanked the cloth from my mouth when he noticed I was turning blue. My. Tomorrow, when you go up the aisle, every woman there is going to be pea-green with envy. I just wish your Mom...' 'Me too. Wearing her gown almost makes up for her being gone... No, that's not right. Nothing can make up for that, but I feel connected to her. Make sense?' 'As much as you want. So, the gown fits?' 'Oh, yes! Aunt Myra did a great job with the alterations. Not that it needed much. I'm only an inch-and-a-half taller than Mom and about two inches bigger everywhere else except my. Stephanie knew much moreabout being a boy than Vinny did about being a woman. She already knewall his toys and games. She knew how boy's dressed. She was learninghow boys behaved through the hard knocks at the Y. She made one slipup in a gesture and the boys were all over her. It was much easier tobe a boy than be a woman. But it wasn't all that simple. Stephanie hadto learn to be genuine. She had to not purposely try to get dirty, shehad to naturally get dirty because she cared more. What she saw next had her slopping juice across the bench.Looking briefly at the dress, Paul suddenly brought it up to his face as though breathing it in. Her heart was going to burst out of her chest. What else could that gesture mean? Especially since, as he walked back, he repeated the action again, stopping to really savour whatever he was getting from the contact.Linda knew her mind was wallowing in a fantasy world, but she could see exactly what he was getting as a most definite bulge.