Excerpt 2 from TRAPPED

Six Three months went by like a flash, and before Jose knew it his beard, which had once been heavy and course, began miraculously to be less noticeable. In another three months it had nearly disappeared and he gave up shaving. He was delighted to find that he was forming small breasts. These new outcropping on his chest were a bit painful, especially to the touch, but this was of little or no concern to Jose who would put up with almost anything to have the breasts of a woman. There also was a marked change in his voice, it now had a high pitched feminine quality that pleased him to no end. In fact, Jose signed up for singing lessons and learned a few sexy songs that he later would incorporate into his striptease acts at the club. The most amassing thing of all, and what delighted him most, was the change in those awful male appendages between his now shapely female appearing legs. They were becoming smaller by the day. He measured his penis every week and it was now only an inch and a half long and no bigger around than a crayon. Jose knew, of course, that it would never go completely away, but it was much easier to live with than it had been before estrogen therapy and he was very thankful for that. Jose went to a local dress shop and bought a new wardrobe featuring the latest women's fashions. Dresses, underwear, stockings, bras, shoes, hats the whole shebang. His next stop was the expensive beauty solon on Havana's main boulevard where the hair dresser, who specialized in the latest hair styles , transformed his long black hair into flowing blond ringlets that covered his rather oversized masculine appearing ears. He also made an appointment with Miami's top beautician. She showed him how to apply makeup in ways that he could not have imagined. Jose walked out of her shop looking like a women who had just stepped out of a glamour magazine. Well, he might not have quite as beautiful as Christine Jorgensen, but pretty close. Seven It took some time, but after several weeks of practice, Jose learned how to walk like a woman and apply makeup in such a way that it would hide what little remained of his beard. It also took some time to learn how to arrange his dyed hair the way the hairdresser had done when he first visited her salon. But, the more Jose worked at it the better he got and after three weeks of practice he was ready for his first real test. Jose rang the doorbell and waited anxiously for his mother to answer the door. Maria opened the door and addressed the stranger standing at her apartment door. She obviously, didn't have a clue. "Oh, come on mama don't you recognize your own son, it's me, Jose." With that she fainted and he barely was able to catch his frail mother before she fell to the floor. He picked his mother up and carried her to the well worn yellow couch which had been a fixture in the small living room since she had first rented the apartment 15 years before. Jose wiped her forehead with a wet dishrag and she opened her eyes a few seconds later. She still didn't recognize her only child and Jose had to explain for a second time who he was. She stared at him in disbelief. The disbelief turned to a state of horror when her mind leapt back to the time when she had discovered him wearing her panties and bra 15 years ago. She came instantly to the realization that Dr. Alvarez had been dead wrong in his optimistic prognosis. Her son had not outgrown his condition. On the contrary, the sexual fantasy that afflicted her son had completely consumed every pore of his body and seemed to have invaded his very sole. Jose spent the next hour explaining what had happened to him over the past several months, including his consultations with the world famous psychiatrist Professor Miller at the University of Miami. She seemed to accept what he was telling her, but then, what other choice did she have but go along with his plans to change himself from a man into a woman. Thank God Alfredo is dead, she thought, he would certainly kill him with his bare hands, no doubt about that, none at all! Jose changed his name to Shalimar and got a job as a cocktail waitress at the El Pajaro. He could have made a lot more money as a hooker, but he was not, as yet, equipped to handle that occupation. Within six months the club's owner realized that he had a money maker on his hands and Senor Steelton gave him a chance to try out as a stripper. Shalimar was an instant success and within a few months became the clubs lead entertainer. She, he, worked hard and saved nearly every cent, socking it away in the local bank in anticipation of the surgery that would complete her transformation from the man she was to the woman she dreamed of becoming. Jose's mind was made up. If he couldn't get Dr Hasting to except him into the University of Minnesota's transsexual program, he would go to Denmark for the surgery, no matter how much it cost.