RANSVESTIA

summer dress of a light fabric-white with an overlay of deep blue dotted Swiss.

Facing the closet, dressed in panties, bras and stockings, holding his wife's dress in his hands, he turned to look behind him just as he had that other day. Now there was nothing to see, but when he turned then he had seen his sister standing in the doorway. She was two years older than David and she was a most amazing person. She looked at her brother, dressed as he was in her things. He stood motionless, not knowing what to do. His sister opened her mouth to speak but a noise from the first floor of the house alerted her. An expression of concern mixed with fear flashed over her face and she quickly stepped into the room and silently closed the door behind her. That second, that act of concealment, for the first time David wondered if what he was doing might be wrong. She saw that concern in his eyes, and then David's sister said the most remarkable thing. She said, "Don't worry. I understand. It's all right."

"Don't worry. I understand. It's all right."

Those words still in his mind, David slipped into his wife's dress. He went to the dresser where he applied make-up with more skill than he thought he possessed. With his make-up done he returned to the closet and took down Maggie's light brown wig and put that on as well. Next he sat on the foot of the bed and put on the pair of shoes that had started his mind on the trail that led to this moment.

The shoes in place, he stood taller now by some three inches, and slowly, carefully moved so as to see his reflection in the full-length mirror attached to the bedroom door. What he saw astounded him like nothing before. It was him, there was no question of that because he recognized his face beneath the make-up and extra hair, but it was also someone else. David sensed there was something almost mystical about the transformation he had undergone. He shivered with a deep, virginal excitement and felt within him a unique and radiant happiness. He had tapped a dormant portion of himself and for the first time in his life David felt an emotional equilibrium. He was a man and he was a woman. And it was a beautiful thing to be.

David spent the rest of the evening in Maggie's clothes always seeming to be drawn back to one mirror or another to look at himself first with amazement, then with satisfaction, then with peace. He put

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