Sure enough, ten minutes later, a suited Mr Sweeney came smiling down the corridor.
“Ah, Mrs Manning, has the butterfly awoken?”
“I think so.”
“Capital. Well, let’s go take a peek!”
Kayla was sitting up in bed, with a nurse clearing away some of the dressings.
“Hello, my girl, how are you?”
“Okay, I suppose. I keep falling asleep.”
“My fault. It turns out I had some extra work to undertake, just to tidy you up. That required additional anaesthetic. But, it’s all done now, and I shouldn’t think I’ll have to see you again!”
All done?”
“Absolutely. We were right, you have a full set of baby-making kit inside you and, by the look of it, it’s all ready to start working, so we weren’t a moment too soon. I constructed what will appear a perfectly normal labia and vaginal opening, including a clitoris. The urethra was tricky, as somehow it came out in your clitoral development, giving you the appearance of being male. Everything is in the right place now. For a while, you may experience some uncontrolled spraying when you pee, but it should settle down as the swelling dies down.”
He peered at his handiwork, Rebecca looking over his shoulder.
“Perfect! It looks a little raw, and slightly swollen. In a week, it’ll look fine, as all the sutures will dissolve. In a few weeks, as the pubic hair grows back, no one will ever know you haven’t always been like this!”
Kayla smiled, looking tired but pleased.
“How long will she be here?” Rebecca asked.
“She can go home tomorrow. I’ll pop in before surgery, at about eight, just to take a last look. Then, come and see me in two weeks, or earlier if you have any problems. I don’t anticipate you will, but one never knows.”
Both were surprised.
“That quick?” Rebecca asked.
“Mrs Manning. You are looking at a perfectly healthy fertile young woman, who has developed rather late, experiencing a minor cosmetic hindrance. All I’ve done is remove the hindrance and tidied things up. The main danger is from infection, so we’ll keep her in for the day, put her on a course of antibiotics and she’ll be right as rain in a week. I don’t advise you to get too energetic for a fortnight, just until the sutures disappear.”
Kayla smiled wearily, nonetheless pleased.
“Right, you can have a light supper tonight, if you feel like it. Take some fluids in any case, although we’ll leave the catheter in for this one night, so you don’t have to worry about the possible spraying problems until tomorrow. I’ll see you in the morning. She’ll be discharged around nine, I should think, Mrs Manning.”
“Thank you, Mr Sweeney.” Rebecca muttered as the surgeon gave them a cheery wave before leaving them alone with the nurse.
“Let me just take the drips out and replace the dressing, then I’ll see if we can get you a cup of something,” the nurse said.
Jake and Ingrid came in a short while later, to find a cheerful Kayla sitting up in bed. She had brushed her hair and applied a little make up. Jake could not see anything of the boy in her.
“How’s my girl?” he asked.
“Hi daddy, I’m fine.”
He gave her a hug and a kiss, regarding the drips with some concern.
“Did you have these in you?”
“They’ve only just taken them away. One was for fluid and the other was a pain relief. I don’t need them any more, I’ve had an orange juice and the pain is bearable.”
Rebecca brought her mother and husband up to date with everything. Jake had known that Kayla was a girl, but he was surprised at how little work was needed to ‘correct’ her condition.
Ingrid and Kayla had a long conversation in Swedish. Rebecca was surprised at how fluent Kayla had become over the last few weeks. She could hear the ‘foreign’ accent in her speech, but it was very subtle and hardly discernable. Rebecca was no longer as fluent, and in a way was slightly envious of her mother’s relationship with her daughter.
“Are you up for a visitor?” she asked Kayla.
“Why?”
Rebecca showed her the text messages from Pete. The last one was:
Can I come and visit u? pls?
“I don’t know if this is a good idea.”
“Why?” asked her father.
“Well, what do I tell him?”
“The truth. You had a small growth that was removed.”
She stared at him, blinking.
“The truth?” she stammered.
“That’s it. Strange as it might seem, it’s actually less complicated than strange stories.”
Kayla giggled a little.
“What about you?”
“We’ll have to be Uncle Jake and Aunt Becca.”
“Daddy, can’t I tell him the whole truth?”
“Kayla, since we started on this little plan, I wasn’t in favour. But now, I can see real benefits. You see, the world is an unforgiving place. If you come out into the open, many stupid people who neither know you, nor understand your situation will assume you are a freak, and they will treat you as such. In seven weeks, school will be over. You can last that long; if you keep playing the part you’ll be fine.”
“Do I still have to, now I’m me?”
“Sweetie, we know you’re you, but to everyone else, you’ll be Kyle the sex-changed boy. Is that what you want?”
“You know it isn’t.”
“Then we stick with the plan. Once school is over, you can go over to Sweden to visit, and let everyone forget about Kayla. You can take your year out, travel the world, do what you want to do, and come back to start afresh at university.”
Jake saw that he’d just hit the nail on the head. Kayla had found a life that she never knew existed, so to be told to leave it all behind was not a pleasant prospect.
“But, Daddy, I don’t know if I can!”
“We’ll have to see what happens at the end of term. We must stick to the plan. The headmaster has gone out on a limb on this, so we must hang in there. It isn’t for much longer!”
“I suppose not. But isn’t it different now I’m really a girl and not a transsexual?”
“It is different, but to a lot of people, there is no difference. They are ignorant and foolish, but they can harm you. Trust me on this. It may have been easier if we hadn’t started the Swedish business, but we have and it can work if we keep our nerve!”
Jake signalled the end of the conversation by handing her the mobile phone.
“Text Pete. Tell him to come and see you.”
Kayla smiled, as her fingers flashed over the small keypad.
Pete was working on his computer, or rather, he was supposed to be working on his computer, in fact, he was surfing the internet. He was reading everything he could about Sweden. He’d already found where Kayla lived, capturing as many pictures onto his hard drive as he could.
His phone bleeped at him. He reached out and glanced at it. As soon as he saw it was from Kayla, he became interested.
Yes. Come now. Am fine. Room 16. Miss you… K
Grinning, he logged off his computer and raced downstairs.
“Mum, can I take your car?” he asked his mother.
“Oh, what’s so urgent?”
“Kayla has asked me to go visit her in hospital.”
Lynn smiled. She had known a few of Pete’s girlfriends over the last few years, yet none of them completely took over every moment of every day for the lad. Her husband, Martin, had told her that the girl was about the prettiest girl he’d seen in a long time, so she was eager to meet her.
“What’s wrong with her?”
“I’m not sure. She said it was women’s problems. I didn’t like to ask her for any details. If she wants to tell me that’s fine, but to be honest, I’d rather not know.”
“Poor girl, how old is she?”
“Seventeen. She’s eighteen in August.”
“Imagine, being all the way over here, while your parents are in Sweden.”
“Her parents are dead, mum. She lives with her dad’s parents in Sweden. She’s staying with her mother’s mother in Abingdon, and her cousins live just down the street. They’re Kyle Manning’s parents. He’s the kid who’s in Sweden on the exchange for Kayla.”