genderswitch [for Sharon]
Joe knows Gene won't kick him out of their bed while he's in this body--knows he's all-accepting and trying to prepare for what happens if it doesn't go away, but after that first night, and the day he's just had at the baseball game, his own feelings are so mixed and twisted to some new chemistry that he needs to get away from the homestead, the growing number of soldiers--
He doesn't want to be this way. He doesn't want Gene to try so hard for something he can't wrap his own head around, some strange, sexless love and wanting for something that, by all rights, should still be there. He doesn't want the dogs to bark at him when he goes to walk them, wary of the stranger he's become.
He doesn't want to get out of their bed and meet Bill in the kitchen, sit through a strained breakfast hoping Bill doesn't know and hoping he does, just so Joe doesn't have to be the one that tells him, and all the while facing the attitude that's keeping him on his proverbial toes.
I'm going to Sharon's, he'd said, clothes tossed in a bag with his leg's accessories, and his voice high and tight with something like guilt, prompting him to add, I might not be back tonight.
Not that he has any idea what she'll say, how much he's assuming or imposing on her, as he knocks on her door.
He doesn't want to be this way. He doesn't want Gene to try so hard for something he can't wrap his own head around, some strange, sexless love and wanting for something that, by all rights, should still be there. He doesn't want the dogs to bark at him when he goes to walk them, wary of the stranger he's become.
He doesn't want to get out of their bed and meet Bill in the kitchen, sit through a strained breakfast hoping Bill doesn't know and hoping he does, just so Joe doesn't have to be the one that tells him, and all the while facing the attitude that's keeping him on his proverbial toes.
I'm going to Sharon's, he'd said, clothes tossed in a bag with his leg's accessories, and his voice high and tight with something like guilt, prompting him to add, I might not be back tonight.
Not that he has any idea what she'll say, how much he's assuming or imposing on her, as he knocks on her door.