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11

TV FICTION CLASSICS

It seemed nice of her and as we left the house, I asked. "Is that what she calls you...Bobby"?

"Yes, and I wish she'd stop. She used to call me that when we first met. It sounds like a girl's name."

"It sure does," I said.

The next time. we played tennis, Bob wore his new tennis outfit. It wasn't too bad. He wore white shorts and they closed at the left side and had girlish short flaring legs. What was most terrible was Bob's T shirt. Because Bob had complained about the closing of the shorts, his motherin-law had stenciled the word

"SPOILED" on his shirt and had made him embroider it himself with blue yarn. He was embarrassed to death, but some of the guys thought it funny and Dot immediately started to embroider "I'M A

was

SPOILED

"Bob playing tennis in his girlish outfit."

SUBSTITUTE DAUGHTER -19

DOLL" on her tennis shirt. The other girls followed suit. I don't think it helped Bob any, because he was the only man with embroidery on his shirt. None of the other men had it, of course.

I thought Mary was really cruel to do that to Bob and spoil his fun. Actually, it only caused him a few bad moments, because as soon as he started playing, he forgot all about the fact that he was wearing a girl's tennis outfit.

That's what caused me to worry about him. He had become completely used to his girlish clothes and seemed to forget what he was wearing and how feminine they really looked. His hair was now touching his shoulders and seemed to have a natural wave in it.

He no longer walked like a boy either. I guess that corset of his had forced him to walk differently and because his jumpsuit and cut-off overalls had no pockets in them he had begun to adapt to that also. Bob looked like a young girl. Bob told me the corset was making a swelling in the breast area. It was beginning to become quite noticeable. . .even with a shirt on his nipples stood out.

Bob's jeans always tightly hugged his hips and fit flat in the crotch area. But Mary had said, "No one will notice." I did! The way he moved his arms could almost be called "elegant".

I didn't want to hurt him in any way or make him feel unhappy. So I never remarked on any of his new habits or movements.

Anyway, the summer wasn't too bad for him and pretty soon work would get busy again. I never heard him complain much about the dominance of his mother-in-law or the clothes she made him wear. He accepted his household duties now as unavoidable and his responsibility to keep the household going. An exemption might be the time two men caught him washing the outside windows of his house in his apron. He told me about it afterward.

"What did they say," I asked him.

"Oh nothing much, they were just kidding around. Made some crude comments about my shorts and hair.