15 Daddy Time

I spent most of my break learning to act like Marsha. Tina had school, of course, but in the evening, she was my teacher and coach. We did yet more practice with walking, and Tina had me practice shaving my legs and my armpits. I’d always been sort of aware that girls did those things, but never really gave it too much thought. I just figured that girls were naturally pretty, and ignored just how much time some of them spent on getting that way. I had been used to simply getting up and tossing on some clothes. Marsha had put her clothes out the night before, as I did, but only to cut down on how much she had to do in the morning.

I spent a lot of time reviewing Marsha’s notebooks. Normally, I did this anyway, as I’ve found that it reinforces learning, but in the case of EuroLit, I had an additional motivation. I also recopied some pages, yet another review technique that I’ve sometimes used. It was interesting to compare my handwriting and note-taking style with Marsha’s – and Marshall’s, for that matter. My new handwriting didn’t quite match either, but seemed something of a combination of the two. I suspected that this was the result of a combination of my habits with Marsha’s muscles and reactions.

Reading the books covered in EuroLit consumed a lot of my daytime hours, but wasn’t as painful as I had feared, and I found that I actually liked some of them. I suppose that’s why they’re called classics, since people generations later can still enjoy them. It occurred to me that I had another problem waiting for me when I changed back – since Marsha wasn’t taking Boolean Logic, I wasn’t really going to have time to focus on learning what was taught in the second half of the term. I didn’t have to worry about the final, of course, since I was going to change back afterwards, but I had planned on taking the next level course, and that meant that I was going to have to make up what I was going to be missing.

A somewhat trickier situation was my relationship with Dad, or rather, “Daddy.” As Marshall, it had been easy. We hung out, played tennis sometimes, watched baseball or football on TV, all typical “guy” things. We didn’t talk an awful lot; but we bonded just by being together and sharing stuff. It was pretty obvious that wasn’t going to work for “Marsha.” I watched Tina – she practically flirted with him. There was no way I was going to be able to do that. Beyond my initial enthusiastic, relieved hug, therefore, I took to mostly smiling at him silently while giving the air of being on my way to do something important, and otherwise avoided him as subtly as I could. After all, I was going to spend most of my “Marsha” time away at school, so I figured I could probably get away without ever learning how she was supposed to handle him.

I should have known better. At dinner on Thursday, he said, “You know, we haven’t spent any time together since you got home, Princess. Are you up for a Dad-and-daughter night out tonight?”

When I hesitated, Tina kicked my foot under the table to get my attention and then nodded urgently, so I agreed. But I pulled her aside while the two of us cleared the table. “Tina, what is the ‘night out’ thing with Dad?”

“Haven’t you ever done this with him? It’s something he does every few weeks with us. He takes you out for ice cream and maybe buys you something nice and you sit and talk for a while.”

“Really? Ice cream?”

“Sure,” she responded. “What’s wrong with ice cream?”

“I’m nineteen years old. I figured I’d be kind of old by now to get excited about going out for ice cream.”

She looked at me as though I was stupid. “The point of the evening isn’t the ice cream, Marsh, although that’s nice. The point is to spend time with Daddy. I don’t get it. Didn’t you ever spend time with him as a boy?”

“Well, yeah, but not ice cream. If we were going out, it was to do something. Like maybe he’d get sports tickets. Or sometimes he’d have to run to the hardware store and he’d ask me along just to keep him company. But we didn’t really talk. The point was to do something.”

She shook her head. “Talking is doing something. I’ll never understand boys.”

An hour later, “Daddy” and I were walking in the mall, eating ice cream cones. “Everything good at school, Princess?” he asked. I nodded, neutrally. “Mom tells me you got a great role in a play. Are you excited about that?” I nodded again.

He looked at me curiously. “You don’t seem to be yourself, Marsh. Something on your mind?” That was kind of an understatement. I knew that I wasn’t acting the way Marsha should; it’s just kind of funny that Dad noticed. I hadn’t thought he’d paid all that much attention, and if I were going to reveal my situation to either of my parents, it would have been Mom, not Dad. Not that I didn’t love him; I was just a lot less certain about how he would react, and I didn’t want to take the chance. Which meant that I had to come up with an excuse.

The first thing that came to mind was the conversation I’d had with my sister. “Dad,” I started, “how do you feel about Tina dating?”

The question clearly surprised him. He stared at me for a couple of seconds before favoring me with an indulgent smile. “About the same as when you started, Princess.” He motioned me to a nearby bench. Once we were both seated, he continued.

“Like any father, I get nervous when my daughters are out with a boy. I remember my own inclinations at that age, so I know I have reason. But Tina is responsible, so I don’t worry too much. As long as she is home on time, I think everything should be fine. And it’s not as if I could – or would – forbid her to date. You wouldn’t have liked that if I had stopped you, would you?”

“Well…” I started, automatically, and then checked myself. I certainly wouldn’t have minded if my parents had stopped Marsha from dating Dirk, but Marsha wouldn’t have felt that way, and I was supposed to be reacting as she would, so I changed it to, “… that’s different.”

He chuckled, obviously believing he had caught me being hypocritical.

“I’m just worried,” I continued. “I mean, what if some boy persuades her to be, you know, intimate?”

“This isn’t about Tina, is it?” he said, suddenly.

“Huh?”

“Your mother told me about this boy at school you were interested in, and how you suddenly got evasive when she asked you about him.”

Now it was my turn to stare.

“This boy. Did he… force you to do something you weren’t comfortable with? Is that what this is about?”

Wow, was Dad ever off the mark. I could see where he’d gotten it, though. The combination of Marsha’s apparent enthusiasm for this mysterious guy, combined with my own queasiness over the idea plus concern for Tina seemed to have led him to put two and two together to get five. I guess I was out of character, and that’s what I needed to fix, quickly. How might Marsha have handled this?

“No, Dad-d-dy,” I answered, stumbling over the name a bit, “I just don’t really want to talk about… um… dating right now. Like I told Mom, I have a lot of school work.”

“School work.” He definitely did not look convinced. It was time to improvise.

“Um… yeah,” I said, trying to look a bit guilty. That would reinforce his suspicions without me needing to confirm anything.

He gave me another long look, and then shook his head. “Marsh, your mother and I met at Piques, remember? The idea that boys and girls find each other… attractive is not a surprise to me.”

“I’m really not…” I started, speaking slowly enough to make it easy for him to interrupt me. And he did.

“We’ve tried to teach you girls what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s important and what’s not. Beyond that, we just have to trust you. And I know that we can.” He winked at me and added, “All I ask is that you make sure to finish school. And make me a father-in-law before you make me a grandfather.”

It wasn’t too difficult to look embarrassed at the implication. Of course, since I wasn’t even going to be dating a boy during my brief portrayal of Marsha, he had nothing to worry about. I found it a bit interesting, though, that he had never given me that speech as a boy. But I just said, “Yes, Daddy,” and that seemed to satisfy him.

4 Comments

  1. von says:

    We did yet more practice with walking, and Tina had me practice shaving my legs and my armpits.

    I guess this is where I figured that Tina saw him(her) showering; but they way you have written it it is ambiguous.

  2. Russ says:

    Ah, but you don’t do that in the shower – or at least my wife doesn’t. I had presumed that Marsh had wrapped a towel around herself* after getting out of the shower and then Tina came in to the bathroom to coach her.

    * pronouns are weird in gender-shift stories. I’ve adopted a practice in discussing the webcomic Misfile (which I recommend, BTW) of speaking of characters in the genders they are presenting themselves as. Since Marsh is acting socially as female, I am going to use the feminine pronoun.

  3. von says:

    Ah, but you don’t do that in the shower – or at least my wife doesn’t. I had presumed that Marsh had wrapped a towel around herself* after getting out of the shower and then Tina came in to the bathroom to coach her.

    Ah. My girls do this in the shower. And it would still add to the whole awkward thing even if he was in a towel. Try it with your wife, and ask yourself how she would feel with you helping her (post shower, wrapped in a towel) if you were just some guy.

  4. von says:

    * pronouns are weird in gender-shift stories. I’ve adopted a practice in discussing the webcomic Misfile (which I recommend, BTW) of speaking of characters in the genders they are presenting themselves as. Since Marsh is acting socially as female, I am going to use the feminine pronoun.

    And I think I will use his self-identification.

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