“We’re going on a family cruise next week! Your Uncle Larry arranged it a couple months ago for himself, Aunt Sandra, Ryan, Jim and Alice, but obv...ously now that they’re getting a divorce, they aren’t going together, and Jim and Ryan don’t want to, so Sandra decided to see if the three of us wanted to go with her and Alice!”Jim, Ryan, and Alice were his cousins. Ryan was the oldest and Mike didn’t know him very well, so it probably would have been awkward if he had gone, but he and Jim always. Do you think there is anythingyou can do?' I begged.'I can teach you how to be a girl,' she offered misundertanding the questionI had asked.'I was kind of hoping you would have an idea on how I could stoptransforming,' I said, depressed.She continued walking with me for a while, trying in vain to console me, buteventually duty called and she returned to the store to begin her day's work.I returned home to mooch around. In the absence of anything better to do Iwatched television, with a nagging. "I'll get it!"I ran down the stairs, fully expecting it to be yet another Jehovah's Witness or house-to-house insurance salesman, but to my surprise, it was Malcolm's housemate Fred."Hi, Jon, is Malcolm ready?" Oh! He's not here, Fred - he's had to go to a family wedding?"Fred looked confused."He said last week that we'd go out for a couple of beers tonight - he must have forgotten."I laughed."I'm not surprised! The wedding was a bit sudden; he only found out it was happening last Saturday!". .. you have treated me..."Suddenly she got up and ran to the ladies' room. She had become overcome and needed to step away for a moment and compose herself. Maybe have a little cry. I was feeling pretty good about what I did–it obviously meant a lot to her. I gave her a few minutes to pull herself together before I went to see how she was doing. I called the hostess over and asked her to go in and check on her and she smiled knowing what was going on and went in to see Julie. She came out a.