14.

A

IV FICTION CLASSICS

make it for you not to wear. I'm sure Doc Smith will be pleased to see you properly dressed in white. After all, the daytime barmaids wear white, so it's proper in a place where food is served."

"We serve chips and popcorn," Bob said under his breath.

"What was that!??" Mary asked.

"Nothing," said Bob sadly, "nothing at all..

وو

The next day I saw Bob at Doc's Beer Bar. He was wearing the white outfit but over it his blue apron which now contrasted neatly with its square neck. I watched him while he was busy with a lot of customers. He seemed to have forgotten his objections, serving beer and chips, always with a smile for the customers.

I was surprised to see that he seemed to have no hair at all on his arms. Many of the women at the bar complimented him on his appearance and after awhile he stopped blushing.

Later, I walked home with him and asked about his bare arms.

"Oh, you noticed," he said with alarm. "Ms. Mary said that in a place like Doc's, people don't like to see hairy arms and that nobody would notice anyway."

"Well, she was wrong. I saw it right away," I said. "But that's just because I know you so well. I bet very few other people noticed."

"I don't know why she insists that I look so neat and clean all the time," he said. "She makes me shower after every time I mow the lawn or wash her car. And now she makes me wear this silly apron all the time I'm home. It's horrible!"

I didn't reply. What could I say? I just put my arm around his shoulder and showed that he was my friend no matter what he wore.

After a few weeks I noticed that Bob walked funny and more erect. One day when we were going up the stairs at this house, he lost his balance and I caught him. "You're wearing a corset. What's that for?"

Again poor Bob blushed uncomfortably. "Mary said I was slouching and that it was bad for my lungs," he explained. "She makes me wear it day and night and

SUBSTITUTE DAUGHTER -15

it makes my body funny." "Let me see it.'

وو

At first he was reluctant but then he gave in. We He went up to his bathroom and closed the door. opened his overalls and lifted his "shirt". She actually had laced him into an old fashioned woman's corset no doubt once her own. His waist was small and his fanny pushed out. It now looked like a real girl's behind. His bottom looked like my wife, Dot's, when she wears tight pants.

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

"Of course not," I promised. "I think your motherin-law has gone crazy! Why don't you talk to Naomi?” "I did," he replied. "But I have to be careful. She's very easily upset and very weak."

"And what did she say?"

"She just smiled and said, 'I used to wear one of those, too.'

"And when I said that I wasn't a girl, she insisted that I do as my her mother tells me, 'She helps us so much with everything....you should be nice to her, Bob. Please promise me to obey her and not make trouble. Then she had a terrible coughing spell and she waved me out of her room.

وو

"Does it hurt much,” I asked.

•

"It's awful," he replied. "It makes me walk so stiff and upright and my waist is so small. . .like. . .a. . .a. .pantywaist," he finally blurted. "My pants are tight in the back and. . .and..ah. . .there's a strap in front that she fastens in the back to make my front smooth, so the trousers fit sleeker."

A fact he emphasized by passing his hand over his girlish crotch, all signs of "Bob" were hidden back between his thigh tops.

I looked down and saw, indeed, there was no bulge in Bob's crotch. "That's terrible, it must be very uncomfortable."

Bob nodded and his face looked like a thundercloud the rest of the evening.