"Denny, will you help me?" came a soft voice from the hall behind the older teenager`s door. With a smile, the dark haired boy named Denny put down his book so he could open it and watch his younger sister Glenda waltz directly to the center of his room. She looked up at him with her large brown eyes which seemed to hold many tough feelings to deal with and for the second time today asked him for a favor she was always nervous to ask.
"Can you tighten this for me..?"
Her head fell down as she gestured to the elastic bandage she had re-fastened harshly around her chest.
Denny noded, "You`re funny," the smile never ceasing to fade from his lips. He loved his younger sister. He had helped raise her, teaching her history and math lessons because she was homeschooled, and within the past few years he had even helped her with other things. Things such as cutting her long brown hair short, building her masculine wardrobe, and buying her those silly bandages that she seemed to like to hide as well as use all the time. All he knew was it made her happy, so he loved doing it.
"Do you want to go fishing with me today, Glenda?"
She flinched at hearing her name. Of course she did, but she just wished he wouldn`t call her that god awful name.
"Sure." Glenda stepped back out, making her way to her room so she could throw on her most prized red shirt which was given to her by Denny the first time she had asked for some of his clothes. It was August 14, 1958 the first time she had any thoughts and opinions about anything that would probably be considered odd, and by May 3, 1960, she knew she was going to be a boy. Glenda had kept track in her old school journal, the one she wrote in everyday, writing stories about her growing up in a different body.
Within the hour, Dennis had driven both of them to the North Fork of the Royal River and the two had poles in the water with nothing biting. They would always go fishing out there, and whenever Glenda would get sad or in her own space, Denny would drive them there and they would just sit for hours watching the slow current bring in little ripples of water and the fish gulping was calming and somehow made her feel better, it was mostly when she started dressing differently. Her parents were getting angry, then in turn they began to ignore her, which was a major component to her depression state. According to her dad, it was not right and sinful in the eyes of God or something to that manor. She never understood why they couldn't accept it like Denny did, because they even took her out of Middle School, leaving her to be home-schooled for the next 5 years. Now she was a Senior, and she knew what she wanted for the first time in her life.
"Hey Denny, can I tell you something?" she sighed heavily.
"Of course you can, anything at all, you know that." He pulled his arm around her before casting his pole out once again.
"If I asked you to start calling me something else, would you?"
He furrowed his brow in confusion and looked at her, "What do you mean?"
She cringed. What if he disowns you too? Your parents already hate you and now you're putting the only person that will ever give a shit about you at risk. What the fuck is wrong with you? Glenda pulled her hair, shut up you stupid brain, you can do it.
"If I asked you to call me Gordie, Gordie LaChance. Your younger brother… would you?"