14 -ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID

First he said "no" but reluctantly unzipped the front of his jump suit. This wasn't like the women's fitting corsets in the closet. This one was silky looking and more like a satin swimsuit with lingerie trim. There was no padding at the bustline.

"That's not like the rest, is it?"

He shook his head. "It's called a trainer." Whatever it was, it pulled in his waist and made his bottom bulge out like a girls'. In the tight jump suit, his derriere was shaped like my sister Emily's when she wears tight pants.

"Please don't tell anybody," he pleaded.

"Of course not," I promised. "But your Mother has gone too far! She should have a girl do this."

"She says I'm better," he replied. "More of a neutral shape. She's working on reducing my waist size a couple inches. That's why I have to wear the 'trainer'."

"How long," I asked.

"Just until I lose the inches," he replied. "I've lost one and have four more to go."

"Five inches off your waist!" I moaned. "That's impossible!"

"I guess not," he said rubbing his sides. "Mother used to wear one of these when she was young and it kept her waist small."

"But she's a girl," I said shaking my head. "Doesn't it hurt," I asked.

"I'm getting used to it but the minute I do, she'll reduce the size," he replied. "It pushes all my excess waist fat down to my hips and up into these cups.'

"Five inches," I stared, "it'll be small like a..

"A girls?" he finally blurted out. "The inch that's off my waist...is now at my bottom. My old jeans are too tight in the back so all I have to wear is those overalls and these jump suits."

There was something else different about his figure and it took me another minute to notice.

"That trainer," I hesitated asking, "it's not made

SANDY THOMAS PUBLICATIONS -15

for a guy. . .I mean. . ."

He knew what I was talking about. "Yeah. I keep telling mother that there's no room. The front panel straps to the back and makes my front smooth," he said, running his hand down his belly showing me how the jump suit's pants fit smoother.

There was no male bulge to be seen. "How can you stand that!" I empathized. "She's not making you wear that to school too?"

Baily looked down and he didn't answer. I just said, "You better lose those inches quickly and get out of those things."

During the hot spring days, near the end of the school year, Baily seemed to lose it. He appeared at school wearing a light blue denim overall, except that the trousers were cut off into cuffed shorts. They were very short and very tight. It looked exactly like my sister's play suits.

His waist had lost several inches and they had settled around his hips. Everyone had seen him in some sort of effeminate outfit but this was so girlish that several girls gathered around him and wanted to know "where" he got it. Of course he sent them to his mother's store. I began to see some logic in her madness but doing this for a little new business to her son was crazy.

He no longer concealed the fact that he was wearing girl's clothes and the students became indifferent to his attire. I'd see some of the guys glance at the back zipper of Baily's overalls and his narrow waist but no one teased him. They all knew that the town survived on his mother's business. I guess some of them felt sorry for Baily.

A few days later I went by the HOUSE OF BRIDES after school. Baily was cleaning up wearing a short, shorts style jumper. There was an awful lot of bare leg showing. That's when I noticed that