"INCIDENT"

A SEMI-TRUE STORY

KAREN

Without a thought he backed out of the bathroom when he heard his wife enter the bedroom "Would you help me with this zipper?" he asked her.

"No." Came her barely audi- ble reply.

"Come on, I can't reach it,” and demonstrated his futility by trying to reach over his shoulder.

She made no move to help him and no further reply. Turn- ing his head he saw her standing woodenly in the middle of the

room.

"What is this all about?" he asked as he tryed again to reach the zipper. This time his hand. reached behind his back and up. Still he could not reach the zip- per tab.

She crossed her arms tightly about her, her face set. "You know how I feel about your dressing." Her voice was like chilled water, cold and devoid of any warmth, but heavy with distance and judgment.

"Yes," he said almost with a sigh, "I know how you feel. We've been over it often enough. You don't want me to ever dress in front of Billy and you don't like me to dress around you. Well that is what I am trying to do, but I can't get this zipper loose."

As she still made no move to help, he gave up and tried one last effort. By reaching up over

his neck he could just grab the top of the knit dress. Thus he was able to pull the collar high enough that he could reach the zipper with his other hand. Once the zipper was started he was able to reach behind him and pull it down the rest of the way. He pulled the beige knit slowly down over his hips, careful to prevent a tear in the tight fitting waist. As he hung the dress care- fully on the hanger, he saw that she was watching him. She had seen him dressed often enough, though he had made a careful and sincere effort to respect her wishes and to dress only on his own. While this was not an ideal relationship at least in terms of his desires about dressing, it was, nevertheless, a very workable one for his marriage. For her sake he would gladly surrender even more of his dressing privileges, though he knew that would in time lead to resentment. This was a working relationship and he would do what was necessary to protect and preserve the rela- tionship.

Still there was something in her attitude just now that anger- ed him. He found himself more willing to confront her feelings about his transvestism than normally. In most circumstances such confrontations ended with him having to "surrender" some

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part of his dressing, though sur- render was not really an accurate word for it was always his choice She had never in all their history made any situation into a de- mand of either her or dressing.

He crossed his hands at the hem of the full beige slip so loved for its all lace bodice. Pull- ing it over his head he said to her "Why wouldn't you help me with the zipper? I was just trying

to undress.'

She uncrossed her arms and walked to the mirror above the dresser, watching him in the mirror as she toyed with stray locks of hair. "I told you that I won't take part in your dressing.

"Oh come on! Pulling a zip- per? Especially when I am un- dressing?"

Without him knowing it she watched him in the mirror as he unfastened the bra and placed it and the falsies in a drawer. She turned as he began to roll off the hose. There was a time when all his dressing had been behind closed doors. Then just as she had realized how foolish it was to pretend that he didn't dress by causing him to hide all of his things in boxes, so he had real- ized how silly it was to be as- shamed of dressing. One day he had decided that he was a trans- vestite and that was alright, he had decided not to be self-con-