RELUCTANT PRESS

I listened to these exchanges with a thumping heart. To say the least, I felt utterly betrayed. I shrank inwardly and felt a little weak at the knees.

Doreen entered. She was large woman without being fat. She was more than passably attractive with a slightly larger-than life theatrical manner; had I been older and wiser, I would have realised that she would have taken the sight of a 16 year old boy dressed in woman's clothes and make up completely in her stride and relish it to the full, which, of course, is exactly what she did.

"DOUG," she shrilled. "how utterly deeevine you look! Stand up, let so have a good look at you." She paused to drink me in. "Dahling, you look an absolute hoot; I don't think I have enjoyed a sight so much since I saw Julian Eltinge in a drag show seven years ago." (Julian Eltinge was a well known American female impersonator of the pre-WW period although he was still making films in the late twenties.) Doreen's joyful acceptance of me soothed my ruffled feathers.

I stood up for her inspection. My smooth stockinged legs did not escape her attention.

"And those superb legs; you make a perfect model for woman's shoes and stockings. You MUST be wearing a girdle or those stockings wouldn't stay up so well. Mavis, love, is it my old girdle he has on?" called out Doreen, but at that Moment Mom entered with drinks on a tray.

"So what do you think of him?" asked Mom, smiling gleefully. "It all started with my using Doug to help me with the hem of that new frock I'm turning out but it's impossibly difficult to do one's own hem and get it right so I simply HAD to have a model for a price, mind you, he's costing me a small fortune," this last, teasingly. "Anyway, one thing led to another and, voila, I transformed a son into a daughter. I did so wish Doug had been a girl; the layette I had was entirely pink and I was going to call her Joyce."

"Joyce dear, what is needed for you now is a proper wig.. I happen to have two at my flat and we are going to go there presently to try them both on you and I'm sure no one would

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JOYCE'S GIRLS BY JOYCE

possibly recognise you for a boy; oh, this is really lovely! Come on dear," she said, turning to Mom "I can't wait to try them on him and see how he looks."

By this time of course, protest would have been quite useless as I had been thoroughly 'taken over' not that I had any ideas of protest in mind.

Seven or eight minutes later we were ready to set off for Doreen's flat, four blocks away in Loveday Street; by this time I had a silk scarf around by head, a handbag of Mom's and her best mac on.

"Lets see if your seams are straight," said Doreen playfully. (Seamless hose hadn't been invented yet.) "Yes, you look super and a thoroughly convincing girl; come on, let's go."

Walking through the streets in a frock that had a skirt sufficiently narrow to make long strides quite impossible was a thrill beyond compare. The three of us clip-clopped our way through the wet, silent streets (it was dusk) for a good seven minutes. I wasn't used to wearing high heels but it was sheer ecstasy as you can well believe.

At D's place, the scarf was quickly removed, my hair combed back and the wigs fitted snugly on in turn.

"I think the brunette looks far better," said Mom. "I think he looks a bit tarty in the blonde wig but as a brunette he looks perfect; it suits his colouring, don't you think?"

"Marvelously", said Doreen with enthusiasm. "Dear, you could go absolutely anywhere in that getup. Let's the three of us go to Blinnman's tea lounge next Saturday morning."

Warming to her theme, she continued, "It'll be something all of us will remember for and ever, amen!"

"Oh, come on, we must," said Mom. turning to me with a delighted grin.

Now, Binnmans, dear reader, was an up-market department store in Eloff Street in Joeys in the twenties and thirties. It was the first department Store in Africa (according to the ads) that had wall to wall carpeting. At one end of the tea lounge was a String quartet with a repertoire of such

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