He laughed and adjusted his skirt.
When it came time to go to sleep, they drew straws to see who would be sharing a tent with Norman, as though it were a terrible burden. Phil drew the short straw. They went in the tent together.
The men didn’t usually bring pajamas, just slept in their underwear.
“I can’t believe I got that fishhook stuck in my skirt!” said Norman as he took his dress off. “Did I tell you about that?”
“No,” said Phil as he looked away.
“And this is a brand new dress, too.”
Phil would have to look at him eventually, and Norman enjoyed his uncomfortable look as he saw Norman in just his slip, bra, girdle and pantyhose.
“Where’s my sleeping bag?” asked Norman.
“I don’t know. Look around for it.”
Norman looked around for his sleeping bag as Phil took off his clothes and got in his own sleeping bag. Norman couldn’t find it anywhere. He realized what’d happened. They’d ditched his sleeping bag as a little joke, so Norman would have to sleep in just his slip, and freeze to death.
Well, Norman wasn’t having it. He unzipped Phil’s sleeping bag and said, “Move over.”
“Excuse me?”
“We’re going to have to share your bag.”
“No we aren’t!”
“It’s either that or I’ll freeze. Move over.”
Norman forced his way into the bag, and Phil leaped out of it.
“I think I saw where your bag is!” said Phil, and dashed out of the tent. Norman laughed privately. Phil came rushing back in with the sleeping bag, and threw it at Norman.
In the morning all the men had to shave, and Norman was no different in that respect, except that he freshened his make-up afterwards. He shared a boat with Jim this time, and he noticed that Jim was being much nicer and more gentlemanly to him, helping him into the boat, baiting his hook for him, even complimenting him on the pretty dress he was wearing. Norman smiled, enjoying the attention.
All things considered, Norm enjoyed the trip very much, and he said so on the ride home. Don just glowered at him.
As soon as Norman got in the door, Mary grabbed him and kissed him and pretty near tore his dress off. Having to go without sex for a few days was making her crazy. She just about ruined his pantyhose, tearing them off him, and she broke a nail unfastening his bra.
When they were done, he said, “I wish you’d treat me more like a lady. Look what you’ve done to my pantyhose.”
“I’ll buy you a new pair, Norma. Let’s go again.”
The next weekend he got a phone call from Melissa, Don’s wife.
“Hi!” she said. “Guess what we’re doing!”
“Are we going dress shopping?”
“How’d you know?”
“It just kind of sounded like us.”
“Pick me up in ten minutes,” she said, and hung up without even waiting for him to say yes.
They were done with the housework, and Norman thought he just had to wear his pretty pink dress for the shopping trip. It might be a good way to bring up the little matter of the poker game. And, of course, he loved wearing it.
He changed his dress and told his wife, “Gotta go. I’m going dress shopping with Melissa. You know, Don’s wife.”
“Oh. Wait up and I’ll join you.”
“No, I think this should be just the two of us.”
“Why?”
“We just happen to share a particular taste in dresses, is all.”
“Norma, please tell me you’re not leaving me at home because I’m not girly and feminine enough to hang around with you and your new friend.”
“Well, I didn’t want to come right out and say it, but---yeah.”
“Do you think I’ve never been dress shopping before? I have just as many dresses as you do!”
“Mary, go to the closet, look at my dresses and look at yours. I don’t think there’s any question who’s the real girly girl in this house.”
“Oh, for crying out loud! You’ve been a woman for a month and you seriously think you do it better than I do?”
“That’s right! Because I make an effort! When you bother to put on a dress at all you put on some shapeless thing in a dull color like brown or orange. I’ve never seen you in a pink dress in your life! You don’t have ANY dresses this pretty!”
“I’m sorry it was such an insult to wear my dresses before you got your own!”
“Mary, I don’t have time to argue about this. Melissa is waiting for me.”
Norman drove over to Melissa’s house and parked out front. She let him in, and they both laughed when they saw each other. They were both wearing pink!
“I’ll change,” she said.
“No, let me change. Let me go in one of your dresses. I had my eye on a pretty one the other day.”
“Only if I can wear that gorgeous one you’ve got on.”
“Oh, you’d look so beautiful in my dress!”
Don was not around. He probably got out of there as soon as he heard Norman was coming over.
They went into the bedroom and helped each other out of their dresses. He put on a pretty aqua dress he liked, and she wore his pink dress. She posed before the full-length mirror, and said, “It’s darling!”
“Really? Your husband doesn’t like it much.”
“What do you mean?”
“I wore it to a poker game, right here in this house.” And he told her the whole story.
“You poor, dear girl!” she said. “Well, don’t you worry about a thing. He won’t get away with it. You’ll be at the next poker game, I promise.”
“I don’t want you to go to any trouble.”
“Not another word about it. Like I said, we girly girls have to stick together. There aren’t many of us left. Come on, let’s go buy ourselves something pretty.”
They got to the only decent dress store in town, a place called “Better Dresses,” and Melissa asked, “Is this where you bought this pink dress?”
“That’s right.”
“Show me where.”
They went to where he had picked up the dress, but there were none left. They asked the salesgirl, and she said, “Sorry, we’re out of stock. I can order you one, if you like.”
Melissa asked her to do that, so she got on the computer.
“Oh, no. Sorry, it looks like they discontinued that dress. You got the last one, Norman.”
“Norma,” said Melissa and Norman together, and both laughed.
“Well, don’t worry Missy, you can borrow that pink dress any time you like.”
“So you two are wearing each other’s dresses, now?” asked the salesgirl. “Strange.”
“What’s strange about it?” asked Melissa.
“Uh, nothing. Nothing. Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply---never mind.”
They started picking out dresses, and the other women in the shop stared at them, whispering and giggling. Norman heard them, but paid no attention.
They went to the changing rooms to try on their dresses. Norman heard her say, “Norma, come help me with these buttons in the back.”
“I can’t,” he said. “I’m just in my slip.”
“That’s OK. So am I.”
So he went into the changing room in his slip. There she was in her slip, too. He helped her put on the dress. She asked what he thought, and he said it looked perfect on her.
She also helped him try on a dress, and he asked her opinion.
“It’s beautiful, but a little big in the waist. But you can fix that on the sewing machine.”
“Oh, right. Of course,” he said, sounding a little uncertain of himself. She realized the problem.
“You don’t know how to sew, do you?”
“No,” he said.
It would’ve broken his heart for her to give him that look that women know how to do so well, that look that says, “typical man!” It seemed for a second as though she were about to do it, but instead she said, “Don’t worry, Norma. I’ll teach you. You need to learn how to sew in order to get your dresses to fit properly.”
“Thank you so much, Missy. I am learning so much from you.”
“Norma, do you know why I put on a pink dress today? I mean, the one I originally had on?”
“No, but I know why I did. I was worried I wouldn’t be girly enough. I’m so intimidated by your beauty and femininity.”
“That’s exactly why I did it, too.”
“Really? You couldn’t be intimidated by me!”
“Norma, you just have this inner glow of femininity about you that no one can learn. You look so sweet and girly in your girly dresses. You are just such an incredible woman.”
“Thank you,” he said, a little bit overcome, and gave her a hug.
They tried on dresses for hours, with other women in the shop seeming to watch their every move. They bought several dresses, and took them out to the car.
“What a beautiful day! Feel that breeze!” she said. “We should be wearing chiffon on a day like this. One day we should have a picnic in the park, and wear beautiful floral chiffon dresses!”
“I can’t wait!” said Norman. “I have the perfect dress! Let’s do it next weekend. I’ll make the sandwiches.”
“I’ll make the pie and coffee. You know, Norma, you look so pretty in my dress, you should keep it.”
“I would, but I know you’re only saying that so I’ll let you keep my pink dress. And you can’t.”
“Oh come on, Norma!”
“Sorry. But I meant what I said. You can borrow it any time you want.”
They went back to her house, and for the rest of the afternoon Melissa gave Norman a lesson on her sewing machine. Then it was time for Norman to leave, and Melissa had to regretfully take off the pink dress she was wearing and give it back to him. He took off the dress he had on and put on his pink dress, and left.
About an hour later Don came home and started to rant and rave.
“Melissa, is this really true? You were alone with that freak in a room, and you were both in your underwear?!”
“Slips! We were both in our slips in the changing room! So what?”
“So what! Melissa, people talk. Everyone saw you two together all afternoon, and now they’re going to think you two are having an affair!”
“An affair! That’s crazy! We’re both women. Why would I have an affair with another woman? I’m not a lesbian.”
“Melissa, you can go around calling him a woman all you want to, but that doesn’t make it so. He’s a man, and you know he is.”
“OK, technically she’s a man, but if she is, she’s a man who wears dresses! How can you be jealous of a man who wears dresses?”
“I’m not jealous of that freak! He’s probably gay, for all I know. But people talk. I’m the Mayor of this town and I can’t have people thinking you’re stepping out on me. Especially with that weirdo.”
“She is not a weirdo! Don’t you dare call her that! She’s my best friend in this entire town, the only one who really understands me. And let me tell you something. You are inviting her back into that poker game.”
“No! That’s where I draw the line.”
“Then you can sleep on the sofa tonight.”
The fight went on for another hour, and in the end she won, as she always did. She was going to continue to see Norman, and Norman would be invited back to play poker.
The next day Mary came to see Melissa at her home. Melissa invited her in and said, “Norma has told me so much about you.”
“We need to talk. Are you going someplace special?”
She eyed Melissa’s shiny lavender satin dress with the full circle skirt, which she wore with matching petticoats.
“No.”
“Melissa, you need to stop this. I’m really concerned that you’re encouraging my husband.”
“Shouldn’t you say ‘wife’? She is a woman, after all.”
“It’s hard enough remembering to call him ‘Norma.’”
“You know what it says on that plaque. She gets ‘all rights and privileges granted to any other woman.’ That includes the proper pronouns.”
“Melissa, please. We have to talk him out of doing this. I thought he would’ve grown bored with this by now. Why are you encouraging him?”
“I feel like I AM her. Women were always putting pressure on me to not wear girly chiffon dresses to work. Stay away from bright colors, don’t wear anything shiny. Conform. Be dowdy. Behave. Well, I don’t behave. I dare to be noticed, and so does Norma.”
“Yeah, but he gets noticed for an entirely different reason.”
“No. I think it’s the same reason. She wears pretty, girly, colorful dresses, and so do I. She accepts me the way I am, and I can’t say that about another woman in the entire town.”
“OK, I don’t know why I even bother saying this, but---Norman is not a woman!”
“You need to take a closer look at her. She’s more of a woman than you are.”
“Melissa, there’s no need to get insulting.”
“It’s just a fact. Look, I can see we’re not going to agree on this. Norma’s my friend and I’m not going to abandon her.”
Mary shook her head sadly.
“I just want my husband back,” she said. “I want to be married to a man, for crying out loud! Do you know I put on his bra by mistake the other day? If Don started putting on your clothes you wouldn’t be so understanding about it. This had better be over in a year.”
“I don’t think so. I’d get used to this, if I were you. Or get a divorce.”
The next day Norman wore his pretty pink and white floral dress to work. It was one of the ones he’d bought with Melissa. Jim came up behind him in the hallway and complimented him on his dress.
He turned and said, “Thank you, Jim! I love wearing it.”
Betty Pearl's Sissy Stories 20.1
Topic: Honorary Woman (Read 19158 times)
