22 TV FICTION CLASSICS

of white showed that he was wearing a lace edged slip underneath. He also wore pink pumps with a two inch heel. And, as usual an immaculate white pinafore, with lots of lace and ruffles which contrasted nicely with the pink fitted skirt. It looked like a french maids uniform, only in pink.

Chapter Four-

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"come on...don't be a spoilsport." Bob was very embarrassed. Mary. . .how could you? You promised nobody would see me in the house." After that first bad moment everyone started talking at once, the girls fawned over his cute appearance and the nice fit of his dress. The men talked amongst themselves, wondering why Bob was dressed as a girl.

Seeing how badly Bob felt, I put my arm around his shoulder and started singing "Happy Birthday, Dear Bob." The others joined in. Bob still had his hands over his face, no doubt wishing he were dead.

We all had brought small presents. Mary wheeled in Bob's wife in a wheelchair looking very pale. Apparently, she hadn't known about Bob's clothing either, because she looked questioningly at Mary.

"It was his birthday and I wanted him to look nice. Those overalls he usually wears didn't look dressy or festive enough," Mary said, busying herself with the cake.

Opening the presents diverted Bob's attention from his embarrassment and he seemed to get into the spirit of the party. Mary gave him a nice bracelet. A dainty bracelet for a boy??? She put it on his wrist herself said it really complimented his outfit. The way she kissed him surprised me, too. It looked like she really cared. for him. How was that possible, I wondered. If she really cared for Bob, she wouldn't sew for him and make him wear all those feminine clothes, unless she had some purpose in mind...or had decided that Bob should have been a girl.

He certainly looked like one. Better looking than many of the other girls. If I had not known, I might have thought that he was a girl even though he wore

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no makeup or fingernail polish.

The party was a success anyway. For the guests, at any rate. I don't know how Bob felt, but he played the perfect hostess. While some of the men helped cook the franks over the grill outside, we all went out to the backyard where Bob in his cute pinafore served soft drinks and later put french fries and vegetables on tables and saw that everyone had napkins and found a place to sit and eat.

I noticed, again, how he seemed to completely forget about his dress, as though it was the normal thing for him to wear and when the party was over I saw him kiss all the girls goodbye, just as though he was one of them. I didn't see him kiss any of the men, though, and he blushed fiercely as he shook hands with them.

I stayed around to help with the clean up and Mary insisted that I wear an apron also to protect my good clothes. At first I protested but then I thought that it might be easier for Bob if I acquiesced. Dot stayed too, and she laughed when she saw me in one of Bob's blue pinafores. Now I knew exactly how Bob must have felt.

I had meant to speak to Mary and find out why she had done this to Bob. But Bob's wife, Naomi, had a coughing spell and they both went into her room, after saying goodbye to us. Dot really over did her goodbye kiss to Bob and the way he carried on, I began to wonder whether there might be certain advantages to being dressed as a girl.

On the way home, I said to Dot, "Wasn't it terrible to humiliate Bob like that, making him wear a dress at his own birthday party?"

"I wonder what's really going on," Dot asked. "It seems crazy, but you must admit that he looked beautiful. When he forgot what he was wearing, he acted so much like a girl that I nearly fell in love with him. I think he's adorable."

"Adorable? What a word to use for a man. I think it was an ordeal for Bob, even though we are used to seeing him wear sissy things, I always thought that it was because Mary didn't know how to make men's clothing. This is ridiculous."