RANSVESTIA

"Are you crazy?" I asked her. "That's where your crowd hangs out. Someone may recognize me."

"What if they do?” she retorted. "They're friends of mine. They're not going to call a cop. Don't be so silly."

Sure enough, Betty and Susan, two of Margie's closest friends were there and beckoned us over to sit with them.

"Hi, Margie. Who's your friend?” Betty inquired.

"Oh, this is Jacqueline, my cousin. She's visiting me for a few days. We just went to the movies at the Bijou. Have you seen it. I thought I'd swoon when Randy Allen kissed Gloria Wales. It made my skin get all tingly. And you loved it, too, didn't you Jacqueline?" Margie said, turning to me with a malicious little smile on her face. I promptly choked on my soda and almost gagged to death.

Throughout all of this girlish gush, Susan kept studying me with a puzzled look on her face. Finally, she said: "I'm sure I know you from somewhere Jacqueline. Now where could it be from?"

"I'm sure you must be mistaken," I replied trying to make my voice sound as girlish as possible which wasn't too hard because it hadn't changed yet. "I've never visited Margie before."

It took Susan fifteen minutes but finally her face lit up in triumph and she leaned over to whisper in Margie's ear.

"Am I right?" she asked and when Margie nodded she leaned over and whispered to Betty whose eyes opened wide as saucers and who stared at me in astonishment. Then, all three girls started whispering until I was beet red and felt tears of humiliation welling in my eyes. Everytime one of them giggled I thought that I would die.

Susan reached out and put her hand on mine. "Jackie, you're an ab- solute doll. Margie explained the situation to us. And we're all going to come and see you in the play. If you could come this close to fooling us, I'll guess that half the people in the audience think you're a real girl." As she was speaking, her eyes suddenly went past me to the door. “Oh, look. There's Joe Bradley. "Hi, Joe,” she called. “Co.ne sit with us.”