Bears Know Best

Chapter 25: Fresh Starts

FRIDAY AFTERNOON MOM came home a little after noon and I found myself heading into Cleveland for the second time that week. "I sure hope we can cut down on these trips soon," I complained to her. Alyssa and the girls were going to the beach that afternoon, but I had to skip it again. Granted at least this was for a better reason than a doctor visit. I had spent the morning warming up for my lesson, and hoped I had learned at least a little bit of playing on the new piece Mr. Fark had set me working on.

"Good afternoon Taylor," he said with grandfatherly smile as I walked in. "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing well, you?" I asked politely.

"Great." He told me.

We went through the lesson and I found him correcting very little on the new piece. He worked with me to fix a few tuning issues here and there on some extreme notes. He seemed impressed with my progress in such a short time on the piece, and set me working on several etudes in a book that he noted was what the All-State auditions would be on the following year.

As I was putting my horn up, he asked, "Taylor, Ms. Redding, I know it may be none of my concern, but I had a question for you..."

'Oh no!' I screamed inside.

"Last week I was in New York with Alan," my former horn teacher, "and having drinks with some friends of ours. He asked how you were doing, and I mentioned that you were amazing... And when I said 'she' was a tribute to him as a teacher... he looked at me strange."

'Yep, going downhill in a hurry.'

"Please, if I may explain?" Mom said, before he could continue.

"No Mom, this is mine to explain," I said with a sigh. "May I?" I asked Mr. Fark politely.

"Of course," he said.

"Mr. Fark... I guess there's no easy way to explain this. When I was born, they did the normal thing of identifying my gender by looking at what they thought was a male part. My dad raised me down in Atlanta, where he plays football professionally. Dad is about six-and-a-half feet tall, and a linebacker... well you can see I don't take that after him," I said with a thin smile. "It got more odd when chest area began to grow in May. I didn't tell anyone about it until I moved here and Mom noticed..."

Mr. Fark nodded to go on, at least he wasn't glaring at me, 'Maybe he won't want to stop teaching me...'

"Well, the doctor she took me to see thought there might be more going on so she did a really thorough exam and a whole bunch of tests." I paused and breathed, "And, in the span of about five hours I learned that due to some weird medical reasons, you probably don't want to know, I was really a girl... and that my birth identity was incorrect. I've spent most of the last month at doctor's appointments and in the hospital having surgery to correct things. It was a big shock, but this seems more like the real me. I was a terrible boy anyway!"

'Well, I've practiced this speech in my head a billion times, hopefully it comes across as the truth.' He sat there looking at me for several moments as I hugged my horn case like it was a teddy bear, and hoping he wouldn't hate me.

"That's certainly a unique situation," he told me with a smile, "this is all true?" he looked at my mom for confirmation.

She nodded, "Unfortunately it is, it's been a long month," she added.

"Well then, that explains Alan's confusion. I don't know how anyone ever confused such a lovely and talented young lady as a boy though," he shook his head. "I won't break your confidence with this, though you might tell Alan at some point if you see him again."