And so, day one

The reason why I created this blog is to enter in a carnival at Absolute Write - Flash Fiction III.  Here's my entry.  Wish me luck that I get lots of critique and please share your brutally honest feedback.  Any education and thoughts I get leads me closer to being a published writer.  

TRANSFORM
By Anne

He lost his finger in a drug bust. Don’t ask me how it happened but the middle finger isn’t there. Just a little stump, they must have removed the splintered bone because all that’s left is some course pink skin melted shiny in between Ringo and Pointer. It happened 10 years ago and you’d think he would have learned his lesson. But then again, he says he wasn’t him that night. He was her.

He says there’s two people there. When he puts on her clothes, he becomes a woman. So that’s why it doesn’t matter that he puts on a dress late at night. It’s only 9:30 and his wife’s already in bed, softly snoring. He knows she’s asleep and since she sleeps hard and all night, he’s got hours ahead of him. He shuffles through the drawers, to the space way in the back where no one thinks to look. He grabs the powder blue panties to match the new pair of shoes he got today. Spiked heels with little blue bows on the back. Tonight he wants the silky touch of satin and lace. His body hardens just at the thought of it. He goes to the bathroom and paints his face. The rouge isn’t really his color but it’s too dark in the bedroom to go back for his own. His wig’s on, and now he’s transformed. He’s become she or maybe its more like she’s no longer he.

She drives slowly down to the old Rainbow Town nightclub. The one that most wouldn’t admit they frequent, but still it’s been open 22 years and counting. She gets out of the car, walks into the crowd of music and calls for a drink. While she waits, she sees a familiar friend and her hand reaches out to caress another man’s ass. Later they will go out to shoot up the crack into her veins in the dark parking lot. The crack is the best because it races through her blood stream into the brain. Her brain is on fire. She can do nothing wrong. After she finishes with the piece of ass, she goes back inside and gets up on stage. It doesn’t matter that her legs are hairy and she’s got no boobs. All the men want her just the same.

Somewhere between midnight and now she can’t remember. She wakes up shit faced in a stupor. Crap! It’s four am. She’s got a hole in her nylons and she’s stone frozen cold. The windows are iced with crystallized snowflakes. She rolls to her side. There’s a guy beside her, not the one she knows. Someone different and his pants are zipped down to his ankle. Did she do that? Her chapped lips say probably so.

Her mascara has wiped off, black circles under her eyes, her wig’s in a tattered pile in between the back seat and door jam. So maybe it isn’t her anymore. Maybe she’s back to being a he. He breathes in slowly and then exales. He watches the ice hang onto the air. Or is it the air hanging onto the ice? He remembers that bible study is tonight and he’s due to take the kids to school. Surely his wife hasn’t woken up yet? Will he get home before she notices?

His head pounds just a little. He shakes her partner in crime and kicks him out of the car. The guy stumbles back toward the bar. Rainbow Town will take the guy in. And so He gets out, stumbles to scrape the windows. The ice won’t budge so he goes at it for a long time. The crack and alcohol are fading away. It’s hard to stay her when he’s in his own skin. Finally he can see clearly. He puts the car in forward and he heads home.

He’s thinking he’s more right than he is. The sound of police sirens emerge quicker than the lights. They pull him over. Get out of the car. Black heels with little blue bows. He takes the field sobriety test. They call him freak and put him in cuffs. He curses. If he could lift his arm, he’d give them the finger. Except he doesn’t have a middle one to give away.