The Real Me - Chapter 10

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Working in her office the phone rang. ‘Rachel Artherton.’ ‘Rachel, Richard. Would you come and see me please?’ Rachel thought, what now. She hoped it was not some dogsbody job. She knocked on Richard’s door and stepped into his capacious office that overlooked the triangle of pavement with its seven trees, a splash of green in a cityscape.

A small woman sat on a chair on one side of Richard’s large leather-topped desk. Richard sat on the other side, against the window. ‘Take a seat Rachel. This lady is Mrs. Durrant, from Thorpe, Ansell, and Durrant. They represent the Earl of Chanctonbury, whose son, the honorable Simon Jessop, is an exotic dancer, employed in Las Vegas, in what is colloquially known as a drag show.

The girls in the chorus are all boys. Mrs. Durrant has provided photos, perhaps you would like a minute to look at them?’ Rachel could see a sparkle in Richard’s eyes. ‘I have ringed Simon.’ Mrs. Durrant says. ‘How do you do?’ Rachel said, holding out her hand as she sat in a chair next to the client. She found a limp dry palm. Richard continued. ‘Leonard Jenkins was attending to this case, but as you know, he has been engaged on this long wrangle in Singapore and he has to stay out there.

He was flying home via LA and attending to this on the way. As you are now our diversity expert, I would like you to take it over. It means a trip to Las Vegas where her son resides in gaol. He has a local lawyer, but as he’s a British citizen, the Foreign Office has asked us to look after Simon’s, and Simone’s interests. Lord Jessop is a foreign office minister, but for obvious, political reasons wishes to keep this quiet.

In particular, no red top interest.’ ‘May I ask what crime Simon or as it says here, Simone has committed?’ ‘It is in the papers, but he met a gentleman and took him up to his room where he found his new friend was from the Sheriff’s Office. Simone also had a stash of prescription medicines. Strings have been pulled.

For prostitution, importuning a police officer, and offering drugs, the Sheriff has agreed to allow Simone to return to the UK, provided he gives up his Visa, well, as I understand anything about US law, they will cancel the Visa. All you have to do is escort Simon home. The Sheriff will only deliver Simon into the hands of a qualified legal representative. ‘Now, knowing by reputation, US prisons, I would like you to pass over everything urgent on your desk to Marion Fulcher and get over there.

Mrs. Jenkins is at this moment obtaining a visa and a ticket for you. Can you do that?’ ‘It’s difficult, I have some personal commitments. I told you about my father, Richard.’ ‘A couple of days. Just get Simon, and Simone out on bail bond and sign whatever to say he will show up for eventual trial if they charge him, although they say if he leaves the country, he won’t be pursued. It’s purely a nanny task.

The US authorities will only deliver Simone, to use his stage name, into the hands of a qualified lawyer. I would ask Marion to go, but she has two young children and you are our diversity expert. You fly out, take charge of Simone and fly back with her.’ ‘Oh, I see, just there and back.

OK. When do I go?’ ‘That depends on what Mrs. Jenkins has been able to arrange. See her and minute me. Any problem out there, just Facetime me.’ Rachel gathered the papers and shook hands with Mrs. Durrant.

Returned to her own office, she looked at the folder. The photos showed a typical showgirl lineup, beautiful girls with linked arms and long shapely legs, sparkling in sequins, with long gloves over their elbows, and yet she knew, they were all boys, young men. In a place like Las Vegas, it would not be unusual.

In Britain, it would be sensational. She found a close-up of her client. She wondered whether he’d had extensive facial surgery, he looked so feminine, in fact beautiful. She was quite envious of those long legs. She found that Mrs. Jenkins was at that moment in a queue at the new US Embassy, the one in Nine Elms, the unfashionable south bank of the River Thames, the new building that President Trump had refused to open.

She found a photo of the new Embassy online. Someone had superimposed a wax work figure of the President standing before it. She found an aerial view. The building the President despised appeared to have a moat around it, presumably to thwart attacks by terrorists. Quite sensible in these troubled times, Rachel thought. She cleared her desk of the other files and briefed Marion on the urgent cases in hand. There were only two that needed any immediate work, for the law in England grinds exceedingly slowly. Rachel had never been to the States. It was an exciting assignment.

Surely, she could leave Daniella a couple of days, just one night Daniella had recovered and was back at school, seemingly none the worse for wear but Rachel wondered, whether mentally she was as stable. She was still in pain from her broken rib. She was quieter, but assured Rachel she was OK. Rachel hoped she would be. Daniella worked hard to catch up on homework. ‘I’ll just be away, two days, tops, just there and back.’ She told her little sister. “I’ll miss you. I just hope Dad doesn’t come round.’ ‘He’s not allowed and he’s not been near, has he?

I think he’s got the message.’ Twenty-four hours later Rachel was at Heathrow, business class to Los Angeles. She was thrilled and flattered that she had been trusted with this diplomatic mission, to bring home the scallywag, cross-dressing son of an important politician and as she had learned, the son and heir to an Earldom. Thirteen hours later she landed in LA. After what seemed over-zealous inspection of her light luggage, she was through and into the USA.

She checked in for her hired car to drive the two-seventy miles to Las Vegas. Even though she had taken a sleeping pill and slept on the plane, she felt phenomenally tired. She drove through greenery and urban sprawl to start with, terrified of driving on the ‘wrong’ side, allowing everyone to pass her, and desperately hoping the satnav would take her to her destination. The countryside became ever dryer and more desolate.

It was like nothing she had ever experienced before, in fact, she had never driven so far or, even abroad before. On the good straight road, driving was easy, but it was all so unlike home. The deserted arid landscape felt oppressive. She wasn’t used to such open vistas with no settlement, not a dwelling in sight. The only reassurance was the traffic, evidence that she was not alone in the Universe. She passed around what she saw was the Mojave, helpful signs told her so, which she was sure from films, was Apache country or was it Navajo?

Anyway, it didn’t matter except that the thought of those native American warriors gave added piquancy to her lone journey. Her vivid imagination ran wild. At least she thought, in return, she would have company. It was after midday when she finally rolled into Sin City, an oasis it seemed in a desert landscape. She thought it would be small but it wasn’t. American cities, because they have room, seem to expand unnecessarily, with huge lots, huge parking lots that are ever only a quarter full.

Somehow, and she thought it a miracle, she found herself on Tropicana Avenue, exactly where she needed to be. Oh yes, the satellite navigator had directed, but even so, with her limited driving experience, she could not believe she was actually here. On arrival at her hotel, the car was taken away by a young man, her first experience of valet parking. She wondered what was happening when the boy demanded the key.

She hoped the boy was not stealing it. Another young fellow trailed her bag to reception. She felt like a princess, a very tired princess. She arrived in her room, dazed from the attentions of these valets, for it was a totally different experience to England, where that kind of attention had disappeared except in the very top hotels. As she looked about what to her was a vast room and bathroom, she realized one had to pay for these niceties. She produced a ten-dollar bill and hoped that was enough and not too much as a gratuity.

She was exhausted and lay on the bed, an enormous affair compared to her bed at home. She decided that traveling here and back to England in forty-eight hours was just not an option. She connected with Richard and explained. ‘I have only just checked in to the hotel in Vegas.’

‘OK, you are on the spot. Check in the car, phone the company to collect and arrange flights from Las Vegas to LA. It’s too much for you to drive all the way to LA and then fly home. I hadn’t realized the distance. I thought it was some hundred miles.’ ‘Nearly three hundred.’ She informed Richard. After showering and changing her clothes, she went down and ate a late lunch. She had the desk call a taxi to take her to the Sheriff’s Office has established which of three she needed to go to.

The taxi drove her through a foreign landscape. There was every kind of import, the seven Wonders of the World in plastic and plaster. The driver seemed to take the scenic route, taking in the Luxor Hotel, the Elvis Chapel, and the Stratosphere. At last, they arrived at an impressive modern building with palm trees along the avenue approach. Stepping from the taxi, the heat hit them like a furnace until she entered the ice-cool interior. ‘Ma’am?’ the desk officer greeted her with a smile. ‘I’ve come to collect a prisoner. I need to see Sheriff Daynes I believe.’ ‘Can I see your papers and ID please Ma’am?’

He looked at her passport and studied her face. ‘It doesn’t do you any justice Ma’am. I’ll have an officer escort you.’ She followed a burly policewoman upstairs and into a long corridor. They stopped at a door marked Sheriff L B Daynes. Her escort knocked on the door and stood aside for Rachel to enter.

Rachel thanked her. A tall man in a tan uniform rose from behind the desk. He was handsome, his hair silver, and Rachel guessed his age to be mid-fifties, the maybe late forties. He offered her a smile and a hand. Rachel returned the smile and found a firm dry hand. She offered her identification, passport, and letter of introduction both of which Sheriff Daynes briefly perused. ‘Thank you, Ma’am. It’s a long journey to collect one prisoner, but I guess aristocrats still pull some weight over there.’ ‘So, it seems.’ ‘You make a habit of this Miss Artherton?’ ‘No, this is the first such commission. I know nothing of aristocrats. My family is poor, I guess you might say, the wrong side of the tracks.’

‘Good for you. So why did they send a young lady all this way? Ms. Simone Jessop must have some powerful friends. We would have let her cool a couple of weeks and then put her on a plane.’ Rachel felt rather annoyed that her trip now seemed pointless. Once again, the rich were privileged. She disguised her indignation. ‘I just do as I’m told. I believe Ms. Jessop has connections. May I see her?’

‘She’s not here. Somehow, she took a drug overdose and she’s in the hospital in the State Pen, the Saguaro Correctional Facility. That’s down at Arizona City on State Highway 87. We found her unconscious in her cell here yesterday morning.’ ‘How do I get there?’ ‘No need. The best thing for you to do is go back to Los Angeles and find a hotel. As soon as Simone is fit, we’ll transfer her down there and put you both on a plane.

These girls, like your Ms. Simone, are a handful. They live on their nerves and take uppers and downers to get by. She’s harmless enough, except to herself, but I won’t release her except on the steps of an aircraft out of here and that’s a favor to your Government.’ ‘My Government? Oh yes.’ Rachel knew nothing of any Government involvement but felt it best to keep quiet. ‘How long will this take? Only I have problems to attend to at home.’ ‘You’re too young to have problems, young lady. What would they be, if I’m permitted?’ ‘I have a young brother, fourteen who is now my sister.

She’s fine I hope, but you know kids, they can be cruel at school. Then our violent father has beaten her up and I’m frightened he’ll reappear and do so again.’ ‘That doesn’t sound good. I’m sorry. This seems a bit of a foul-up but beyond our control. People take drugs and we face the consequences.’ ‘Can I go to Arizona to pick her up?’ ‘No, you don’t want to do that. You have my word that I’m looking after this personally.

As soon as she’s fit, we’ll put her in a car and deliver her to your aircraft. You will meet her on the tarmac there. How are you traveling?’ ‘Business class.’ ‘Then we’ll book two seats and charge you if you give me bank details?’ ‘I have my firm's charging details, yes, for such an emergency.’ ‘Good. I’ll just take a copy of that.’ He lifts the phone, ‘Juan, can you step in please?’ Juan stepped in a large Latino in uniform, gun in his holster.

It seemed inappropriate dress to do photocopying but then everything about the United States, from her short visit, seemed very different from the UK. He returned in a minute with Rachel’s documents and photocopies of her passport and the firm banking details. ‘The best thing for you to do is go back to Los Angeles, wait in an airport hotel and I’ll notify you of the flight. We’ll pick you up and deliver you and the prisoner to the flight.’

‘Do you know when?’ ‘Well, it could be tomorrow, if Simone is fit. We know Simone of old, one of those who can’t stay out of trouble. We just want her out of here. Don’t send us any more royalty.’ He said laughingly. Rachel smiled, slightly puzzled by the remark. ‘I had better leave first thing in the morning, then.’

‘That’ll do it. Hopefully, get you on an afternoon flight if they have detoxed Simone.’

After a lonely evening in which Rachel was afraid to venture out alone, she went to bed early. She would not be sorry to say goodbye to Sin City. Her stay had been horrible. Oh, the hotel was great and Sheriff Daynes had been accommodating, but Rachel hated what she saw of Las Vegas. It seemed completely soulless, fake, Disneyworld for grownups, plastic, and plaster.

You couldn’t walk anywhere, Daynes had advised against that because he said, it was not safe for a young woman alone if only because one could be mistaken for one of the ‘girls’. The sleazy, crime-ridden past of this ‘entertainment capital’ put Rachel off. She was rather puritanical in her views, quite contrary to the life her father led.

She had made her mind up about the place before her arrival. If she had come with a gang of girls to a ‘hen party, it could have been a whole different experience. The hotel had a vast floor of gaming machines, plus a casino floor for blackjack, roulette and any other gambling game. The food was good and mostly free. Her room was immaculate, huge, and clean.

The TV was dreadful, interrupted by ads every ten minutes. It was as bad as Google had become, popups all the time obscuring what one wanted to read. If the greed for internet services continued in that vein, it would soon be unusable. Greed was killing the geese that laid the golden eggs, the internet had delivered.

TV had already taken that path, that’s why everyone now records and rushes through the ads, watches Netflix and Amazon and YouTube, Rachel reflected. Human greed was killing the World and Rachel knew, just by flying to LA and back, she was contributing to the globes accelerating death. Her wake-up call came promptly at five-thirty. At seven-fifteen she was taking off from McCarran International bound for Los Angeles. By ten she was sitting in her new hotel awaiting a call from Sheriff Daynes. She waited some hours.

Her thoughts were on home, hoping Daniella was OK. She looked at the news on TV and the heatwave that seemed to cover half the globe. Rachel, being of a serious nature, felt a sense of doom. Was the drought sign of the World’s imminent demise caused by human activity? She felt a sense of doom. She wanted kids eventually but feared for the future they would face. She texted her little sister once again. ‘Delayed in Los Angeles.

Hope you are OK. Love Big Sis xx’ She received no reply. She tried to work out the time differences. If England was ten hours ahead? Was it ten hours? Then Dannie would be asleep. Well, she thought, the kid now has friends. Dannie was alone in the house but at fourteen, she should be able to survive a few days and most of the time she would be at school or doing homework. Mum came home at ten-thirty each night too, so if there was anything serious, Dannie could wait up and tell her. At 6 pm, she received a call from Sheriff Daynes. ‘The prisoner is fit to travel and in transit to LAX. You are booked on AA 6179, 21.35 hours.

Stay in the hotel lobby and the LA police will collect you. Just make sure you pay your bill.’ ‘Of course, Sheriff. Thank you. I’m sure the Earl of Chanctonbury will be most grateful.’ ‘I rather doubt that. Simone is a real handful. If she wasn’t a member of the Royal Family, she would be in jail.’ ‘She’s not…,’ Rachel began and then thought, that’s why she’s getting special treatment, they think Simone is a member of the Royal Family. ‘She’s not what?’ Daynes asked. ‘Still under the effects of drugs?’ Rachel said quickly.

‘Sure, no. We wouldn’t allow her to travel with drugs in her veins. We have searched her baggage too but she’s not allowed any alcohol on board and I’d advise you not to have any either.’ ‘Ah. May I ask, is she, Simone or Simon, at the moment?’ ‘Oh, she’s very much Simone, all six feet six inches of her in five-inch heels.’ ‘Will we get through emigration?’ ‘You will both be delivered to the steps of the plane. What happens in London is up to you.’ ‘Thanks, Sheriff Daynes, you have been great.’ Rachel collected her toiletries and vacated the room.

In the lobby, she paid her bill with the company credit card and sat quietly waiting for the LA police to show. She texted Richard with her flight details. Two uniformed officers entered the lobby and she rose to meet them. They all shook hands which made her feel less as if she was being arrested, and more like one of them. They were jovial cops, a Latino, Miguel and Jimmy, a too blond to be real, crew cut Caucasian. Like, true gentlemen, they ushered her from the hotel and into the Black and White. An hour later she was deposited at the steps of the aircraft.

A tall female emerged from another Black and White. Rachel had never seen such an Amazon. She towered over Rachel by a foot but she was slim-waisted with broad and shapely hips and thighs, clad in an ice-blue mini skirt suit.

Her long auburn hair caught the reflections of the airport apron lights. ‘Darling,’ Simone said, ‘You’ve come all this way, just to collect little old me? That’s so kind of you.’ Her voice was low, but not too low to be female. She was beautiful, more so than the photos had shown.

Her accent was decidedly upper-crust English, Eton or Harrow. Rachel thought of that MP, Rees-Mogg, and his lazy upmarket drawl. ‘What I’ve been paid to do or would you rather an American jail?’ ‘Certainly not, darling.’ Rachel shook hands with all the escorts and ushered the giantess up the steps before her.

They were soon settled into the business. Rachel stowed her carry-on luggage with the help of a stewardess and saw to her companion’s luggage too because Simone had already collapsed into her recliner. ‘I’d like champagne please.’ She said, smiling beguilingly. Rachel connected with the flight attendant and shook her head. ‘No alcohol on any account.’ ‘No Ma’am.

We’ve had orders.’ ‘Good. Thank you.’ ‘For you Ma’am, you’re entitled?’ ‘No, I better set a good example. I hope we won’t have trouble. Have we any muscle aboard?’ ‘We are prepared for most things Ma’am.’ ‘Good. If we feed her, perhaps she’ll sleep.’

Rachel almost prayed. ‘We’ll keep an eye on her.’ When Rachel turned back, she found her charge already plugged into her earphones. She reached across, found the seat belt and buckled Simone into her seat, and set the seat in the upright position.

She settled herself and the plane began to roll as the safety talk commenced. They were leaving on time. Thank God for that, Rachel thought. She hoped she would not have to stay awake all night, the nurse mailing her companion.

She looked at Simone’s hands. They were large yet slim. Her nails projected at least an inch and were beautifully painted in a light blue that matched her mini suit. Her legs were beautiful, bronzed, nude, and hairless. Simone was more feminine than any female she had ever met. Rachel wondered whether her little brother would be such a creature, given time, or was she different?

She might try to have a conversation during the flight. Perhaps she should try to understand rather than think Simone is just a weird, wild child, the product of hormones and too much money. As the huge Boeing climbed steeply from American soil, she thought of Daniella. What would be her fate? It was such a shame, she thought, that a kid should have such a blighted life, and yet, Dannie was better off than many kids born with some other disabilities.

Rachel decided she had to concentrate on the positives regarding Dannie. She would devote her life or part of it to making the World an accepting place for her little sister and those like her. As soon as the plane leveled out, food was served and in business class, it was very good. Her companion ate hungrily. She had requested Champagne again. Rachel said she was not allowed alcohol on the flight.

They ate and Simone asked Rachel about her life and background. Rachel told her about the house in the mean street, and that her father was banned from coming near. ‘We are not from your privileged background.’ She said, bitingly. ‘Bit of a class chip, sister?’ Simone asked with a smile. Rachel realized yes, she had resentment of someone of Simone’s background, who born with every advantage, still managed to fall by the wayside. Rachel tried to make amends and sought common ground.

‘I’m just saying, it’s not easy for some. You have had every advantage, I guess and yet I have to extract you from prison.’ ‘Sure, look, honey, none of us can help our birth, nor how our brains work. I was born a boy yet look at me. Can you see much boy? That’s not my choice of lifestyle or image. This is me, how I have to be to enjoy life.’

’Yes Simone, I’m sorry, you’re right. I think that was my Grandpa speaking. It’s an unequal world and always has been and always will be, from the time when an ape in a cave had the biggest club till now.’ ‘You are an amusing companion, lawyer Artherton. I feel sure you are what is called upwardly mobile.’ She touched Rachel’s hand with her immaculately manicured fingers. ‘I should understand, I have a sister, fourteen. Well, until a few weeks ago, she was my brother.’

‘Oh, is that how you qualified as my guard for this trip?’ ‘I guess it was, at least partly.’ ‘And what do you do the rest of the time?’ ‘As you know, a lawyer, studying for the bar. My principal has Christened me their ‘diversity expert’. I’m not. Having a trans sister is not much of a qualification.’ ‘But you’re good to her?’ ‘I hope so.’ ‘Good for you. Mum and Dad?’ ‘Not that helpful. Dad’s violent, expecting a boy to be like him, and of course Dannie is nothing like that. I expect problems. Dad is now banned from coming near.’ ‘What does he do?’ ‘My Dad? A con artist, well, so Mum says, and maybe worse.’ ‘Oh, poor you. And he’s violent?’

“He never hit me, but Mum and little brother have suffered, yes. A terrible temper, especially with alcohol.’ ‘Then, you get me. I’ll not cause you any bother but I would love some champers.’ ‘It won’t work, Simone. I follow orders.’ ‘It was worth a try. I’d like to meet your little sister.’ ‘Why?’ ‘I could give her some tips, at least on makeup and how to dress.

You could make more of yourself.’ Rachel reddened. What a bitch, she thought. Typical of her class. She tried to bring her class hatred under control and be professional. ‘I don’t know anything about you, Simone. When I left England, I didn’t know whether you would be Simone or Simon. Can I ask, have you had surgery?’ ‘Face and boobs.’ ‘Not down below?’ ‘The rhythm stick? Bless you no. Never, not for me.’ ‘But you won’t revert to being a man?’ ‘Revert? Sounds like a pervert. A man, no I don’t want to be that. I’m perfect as I am.

I’ve been a fool, stepping outside the law, getting involved in drugs and dealing, only uppers and downers, a bit of coke too but the police didn’t like that. Someone in the group sold me out. I loved being in the group, all girls together, such fun, those costumes, the exotic makeup. Sex. It was brilliant fun. I loved Sin City. Did you like it?’ ‘I don’t know it. It seemed like a space-age place, no soul, new, brash, fake. It frightened me. In fact, this whole trip has been one of fear. I’ll probably have ulcers.’ ‘What else was frightening.’ ‘Driving out to Vegas. Those straight roads, far horizons, wide skies, and desert landscapes.

It was like nothing I have ever seen.’ ‘So, you drove alone? That was brave. What thoughts went through your head?’ ‘What while I drove?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Every Western film I ever saw, all jumbled up, John Wayne’s trilogy, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Fort Apache, Rio Grande. I thought about the native Americans being pushed off their lands, and the slaughter of the buffalo that supplied much of the Indians’ way of life. I’m a fan of Robert Duval, ‘Lonesome Dove’, I cried when he died in that movie, but maybe, he shouldn’t have been shooting buffalo on Indian territory.

‘Broken Trail’ when he was so kind and yet totally ruthless in pursuit of right. I thought of the bravery of the settlers, making journeys into the unknown, braving all sorts of hardships, and sometimes leaving relative luxury behind. I was sort of aware, of all the ghosts that lie out there. I don’t believe in ghosts or the afterlife but ghosts do live in the mind, ghosts of native Americans. They are painted as simple savages or leading lives that were near perfection, only taking from the World, what they needed but the truth was somewhere near both extremes.

Tribes fought each other for hunting rights and enslaved prisoners of other tribes. White people were just another tribe, with superior force. Just the distances, and incredible journeys, by tribes and the settlers. It’s hard to imagine how hard life must have been back in the wagon train days. While all those thoughts whirled about my brain, I sort of suffered agoraphobia. I think I even whimpered at one point when all I could see was a distant purple mountain far across a desert and for just one or two minutes, no other vehicle in sight. I half expected an ambush.

Yes, you smile, and sitting here, it seems silly, but at the moment, I broke out in a sweat in spite of the air conditioning.’ ‘Well, who’d have thought my gaoler would be so human. I like you, Rachel. I like you more because you’re looking after little sister, Lawyer Artherton.’ ‘Do you know, I like you too, the Honourable Simone Chanctonbury.’ ‘Elementary mistake. Chanctonbury is the title, our family name is Jessop.

The Honourable Simone Jessop. I’m a disappointment to my family.’ ‘Are you? Is that why you do the drugs?’ ‘Uppers and downers, coke sometimes, I don’t call that doing drugs. But yes, it’s not always easy living with myself. There’s a small part of my brain that’s ashamed of who I am. I would love to be ‘normal’, cisgender, straight, but only if I was a girl. A real girl. I’d like to meet your little sister.’ ‘I’m terrified for her.’ ‘Hey, it’s not that bad. Oh, the school will be a trial, mine was. But I’ve had a lot of fun too. I guess I miss out on a lot that a natal woman enjoys, for example, she can set her hat at any male she fancies or any woman, for that matter.

For me, being attracted to a guy who thinks me a natural woman, could end in my death or at least a broken heart. Hey, that lead to my arrest. Women think they have it hard in a World, still dominated by men.

We have it harder and yet, I have this supreme joy inside of me, that I left the cocoon of my maleness and became this butterfly.’ She gestures the length of her, with long slim hands, fingers extended gracefully. ‘I can’t describe the joy I feel, waking up in the morning with the familiar realization that I discarded the male cloak. I look in the mirror and I’m reassured that I am who I want to be. Sure, there‘s a lot of make-believe, but isn’t there in everyone? Are you truly as confident as you seem, being Lawyer Artherton, as Sheriff Daynes referred to you?’

‘I, no I’m not. Women have come a long way but we are still the second sex, the second choice, often the dogsbody, given the jobs men don’t want, for example, escorting a trans-woman out of the States and back to England.’ ‘There you go, sweetheart. You get it.’ ‘But you say you’re happy?’ ‘Sure. It’s like I have this heat inside me, a joy of femininity that no natal woman has, because they, you grew up, never doubting your gender, whereas I won my female persona, painfully, enduring the imprisonment of my male body and the treatment I had as a boy child, denied, deprived of all those things you as a girl, took for granted, from pretty panties to pigtails.

Even you, in your little house the wrong side of the tracks with an abusive father, enjoyed being a girl and having girl things and girl tenderness, a life I would have begged.’ ‘I never realized it could mean so much.’ ‘You thought being trans was like a whim, like wanting to see a Stones or Justin Bieber concert? Sister, it’s more like a dog gnawing away at your bleeding leg and not being able to shake the creature off.’ ‘I’m so glad I made this trip. Simone. You have been an education, now I understand Dannie and what she had endured, and why even fear of father, could not alter her.

Thank you.’ ‘Glad to help. I wish I hadn’t messed up in Vegas. I loved it there.’ Silence falls between them, but a friendship has flowered. Rachel is surprised when Simone takes her hand and presses it to her lips. ‘Nighty-night, Lawyer Artherton. You’re OK kiddo!’

They recline in their Business Class capsules. The lights have dimmed in the aircraft as it drones on and on through the night and into the next day. Rachel thinks of home and her dear little sister. She senses something’s not right. Bugger Simone, bugger Richard for sending her away, she says inaudibly.