RELUCTANT PRESS

she had her eye on the new dress herself and would be trying it on as soon as we got back home.

"Well, come on, then. We are going to have a real GIRL'S morning," said Joan brightly. "We'll go window-shopping and try on frocks and shoes and all sorts of lovely things. Joyce, honey, you are going to have to enjoy being a girl for at least one day in your life, It will give you some wonderful insight on the feminine psyche."

We made our way out and proceeded up Eloff Street.

We hadn't gone half a block when Sue squeezed my arm. "Do you see who I see?" she asked.

"No," I replied, mildly alarmed.

"Well look over there, making her way toward us." It was Miss. Orchard, our English teacher. I wanted to run but turned to look at a window display instead, my heart pounding nervously.

"Hullo, dear." she said, recognising Sue. "Going shopping, are we? Good morning Mrs. Gilray. And you must be Mrs. Gregson, Doug's Mom," she said, turning to my mother.

"That's right," returned Mom. "We left Doug at home this morning. I think he is writing you an essay or something."

"Shame," laughed Miss. Orchard, "I feel a perfect beast now; he should be out and about on a lovely morning like this. Give him my love and tell him not to work too hard." "Of course," smiled Mom, "but I think he would have been a bit out of his element with us now we are having a typical women's outing."

After a few more pleasantries, we moved out of the danger zone.

"I saw her looking at you and she didn't even recognize you," said Sue gleefully as we moved out of earshot.

"A bit too close for comfort," was all I could murmur. "What a baptism you are having into a woman's world," said Dee. "You wanted to go to Cecielle's, didn't you?" We made our way there slowly...

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JOYCE'S GIRLS BY JOYCE

And so it was, on that bright spring morning in early May in 1938. The morning did come to an end, of course, but there are a few riders which I shall reveal to you presently.

"See you Monday," I said as we separated from Sue and her Mom at the corner of Plein and Eloff Street at 12:30. "And Friday," said Sue, sotto voce. I breathed happily. My cup of happiness was full to the brim.

The two observations I want to make are... well, no, perhaps three.

The first is, I must have been naive in the extreme to have a bubbly, excitable and fun loving girl of sixteen to never ever divulge the 'secret' morning outing. By the following Wednesday, at least a dozen people knew of 'the great drag act'. The second observation is that it made no damn difference and my world did not come tumbling about my ears. Third, girls, I found, were inclined to be infinitely giggly and quite accepting, even the Peggy Staple's of the world. Even Miss. Orchard came to hear of it but her remark, "Really, Douglas, there must be something French in you; who would have thought it," was hardly an admonishment. She merely eyed me quizzically but did not titter, chuckle or laugh.

Boys, when confronted with an escapade of the sort set down here, are more likely to have hang-ups; they either don't allude to it in your presence or ignore you completely. The fact that there was no overt hostility may have had it's roots in the fact that I was the school fencing champion and even went on to represent Southern Transvaal at a later date; but perhaps I delude myself.

-

My second observation concerns Mom she, the dear, had quite a vested emotional interest in my feminization, which could hardly have suited me better.

As the door of the flat closed and we were alone at last, she turned to me and said, "You WILL stay like that for the rest of the day now, won't you?"

"Can I?" I said with some eagerness; I felt it didn't matter anymore and I could, in the safety of the flat, quite openly ex-

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