My Friend Bernie

Anonymous

Why is it so strange to find out a friend of yours is a transvestite? How are you supposed to act? I didn't ask myself these questions when I first found out my friend was a TV. but now I have to. Bernard still can't believe he was able to tell a man and woman about his problem and find that they did not turn their backs in disgust. His TV friends have been telling him how lucky he is to have friends that understand and how they wish they had friends they could go to. I find it very hard to believe that understanding 'straight" friends are that hard to come by. Could it be that it takes more courage to admit to your friends that you are a TV than it is to admit it to yourself? Bernard didn't exactly come up to us and admit his problem with a clear head. There was plenty of hell preceeding this.

I

We met Mary and Bernard a little over a year ago. They moved into the apartment next door to us. I heard from other neighbors that he was a drinker and only for this reason we didn't become friends right away. We would nod a hello and that would be it. My wife and I had had our share of drinkers back east and couldn't see making friends with one out here. Then all of a sudden we were friends. don't know how it started but we didn't find him so bad. even think of his drinking as he didn't come near us when he was "under the influence". We even planned a weekend in Las Vegas. had a good time, even drank a lot but no drunken sessions. That is not until a few weeks after we returned home.

We didn't

We

I came home after an engagement one evening and heard a lot of noise as I entered the courtyard between the apartments. I soon found the noise to be coming from my apartment and also from Bernard. When I walked in, there he was with a bottle of Vodka in one hand and a water glass in the other. He was so sickening drunk it wasn't funny. It was plain that his wife and mine were not having an easy time with him. I was ready to blow my top, but knew that would get me no where so I sat down and tried to talk to him, trying to get him to his apartment and into bed. He only got louder and louder and the girls were getting more upset. He started to talk without making sense. He kept telling me he had to prove he was a man. As far as I was concerned, all he had to do was pull down his pants to prove that, but he felt he had to destroy something or someone to do so. He kept clinching his fist at me as though I was his victim, but then

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