to Consuela.

"It's too full a day for her," protested Esteban's chief teach- er. "She can only keep it up for so long."

"It appears," said the low, husky imitation of Irena's voice, "that I shall have to, or. . . ." She paused, giving a sudden, visible shudder.

"Or the Revolution be- comes the most laughed-at and ridiculed affair in the world!” crowed Isabel. Her triumphant smile savored the helpless and angry looks directed at her by the revolutionaries but missed entirely the sudden, despairing look that flitted over the face of the hemisphere's only 'woman' President.

*

THE

VII

ONLY PRESIDENT.

WOMAN

When Esteban slept, in his pretty frilly babydolls, of course, his sleep was fitful indeed and filled with images of Salluca intoning all the things that 'she' had to do the next day, while Consuela just laughed and crowed that 'he' would be discovered. He just couldn't be a 'she' all day long. Sur- prisingly, Isabel did not figure in any of his dreams. were they nightmares?

•

or

at

Whatever they were, they were very vivid. He was at school, just a young school- boy, starting out again Pujols Academy with Roberto Cadenas, his best friend then. He was starting all over again, and again.. .but somehow the Academy wasn't the same. It wasn't just a 'boys only' school as it had been. There were girls there. Pretty girls, with ribbons in their hair and makeup on despite the fact that they were very young, not more than twelve or thirteen. . . .and they were all over the school, even sharing the dormitories with the

boys.. going to bed in pretty nightdresses, but nobody thought it was odd.

.even

though there were some girls and some boys in each of the long sleeping halls. There were female school teachers, too, at Pujols.

·

But there weren't enough girls when they played games or when they were dancing. who'd ever heard of dances at Pujols. .and some of the boys had to join the girls' side and so they had to dress like them. And Esteban was one of those who had to become a girl, with long hair and a ribbon. . .but everyone was encouraging and no-one thought it odd. . .and the girls tried to teach him how to be like them, and the other boys who were girls, too, but they were better than he was. One moment he was a boy and next he was a girl. .and he was some kind of cheerleader with a lot of other girls, in a skimpy, little dress, like the other girls, a halter like top to show off his figure like theirs. and his eyes were so beautifully made up like the other girls...Ribbons streamed down his long hair, which was light, almost blonde, onto his bare back.. .He kicked up to show the silk panties all the girls wore. .and he jumped because something had happened in the game, and his breasts bounced and jiggled up and down just like the other girls. . .

•

Then it was the dance. . .no, it wasn't. He was in the barn, haymaking with Roberto...they always did that in eighth level farm camp and he had done it.. but he, Esteban, was made up and his shirt, frilly, lace- edged, was open enough to show Roberto his lacy, silk underclothing. A slip with thin straps, a bra. . .but it was filled.. his breasts pushing out and Roberto was salivating as he had when he and Esteban had found that book in the barn. . . but that was gone. It never existed. 'He,' the girl known

·

-19-

still as Esteban, was tearfully explaining to Roberto that his breasts were real and if the boys didn't dance with him at the coming dance, he'd be failed in school and thrown

out by his parents. . . And he, Esteban, with long, berib- boned hair, was crying, and his and makeup was running. Roberto looked really em- barrassed and was saying, what would the other guys think. But I am your best friend, Esteban was saying, showing more of his feminine under- clothing and breasts Roberto. Roberto

to

was saying

•

he couldn't do that with Esteban unless he was sure that Esteban would in future. . . but he had to let Roberto touch, you know. and he was trying to kiss the long blonde-haired girl, who Esteban, and his hand was reaching out to touch, which Esteban was aching for him to do...

was

The blonde girl had straw in her hair but the mistress who looked down on the pair in the hay only smiled and seemed to contratulate them as she motioned and the blonde girl began to do up her shirt. The dress she wore to the dance was shiny and black with little straps over her bare shoulders. It was very low cut and very revealing. Her makeup was her lips glossy, pouting, and she stood among the other girls who were making a fuss of her. They were angry at the boys who hadn't danced at all with the girl with thick, long, blonde hair, who was Esteban. The girls would dance with him, of course, but weren't the boys stupid, not to realize

"She" stared angrily at Roberto but he swallowed and turned away, embarrassed. But then, Aurelio Bustamente but Esteban had only known that social climber at University, not at Pujols, so how came he here?. . but Bustamente was asking the blonde girl to dance while