I hit the head, and found Mom and Dad chatting again. Dad seemed preoccupied. I went over to pass him the keys, and he pulled me to the side."Listen J...remy, I need you to do me a favor." Of course. What?"He looked around briefly. "Your cousin was getting a little too friendly with your mother, on the ride. She's a little nervous over the whole thing. Not that I don't understand how that might happen. We all know how he feels about your mother. She's a handful, and for a young man to have that. She'd begun her metamorphosisshortly after her sixteenth birthday, back when Shehad been a He. A boy.A boy with tiny wrists and huge misty eyes and a voicelike fine autumn rain. Missing his cue and enteringthe stage too late for puberty, he was constantlymistaken for a girl, a delicate, ivory tomboyattempting to hide her femininity behind short hairand Nike runners and those ungainly black duffle coatsso popular a few years ago. She'd known, even then.In a way, she'd always known; her earliest. He called her a little slut. Elle cried. Mom was quiet, shaking her head. At the rest stop, dad and mom went inside to use the bathroom. Looking around, Elle grabbed her bookbag and her wallet, containing twenty dollars, and jumped out of the car. She raced away from it and headed straight for a truck. A tall, handsome man had just stepped away from the truck and Elle climbed into the cabin. Grabbing a blanket from the passenger seat, she huddled under the passenger side of the dash. The man. I’d never say they shouldn’t come and have fun at the beach, just not in a Speedo – or, shudder, a thong!”“I’ll bear that in mind and not buy one.”“Mmm, but you’d look nice in one, you’re tall and slender.”“And bulgy enough?”“Of course – although I’m not sure I want other women ogling your bulge.”He laughed again. “Like you do with other guys, you mean?”“That’s different!”“How, exactly?”“Well, because… I don’t know, it just is!”“Ah, I see. A well-considered and convincing argument, Rayney.”I.