Letters from a Lost Girl #2

Luzern, Sunday July 31st 1960

A boy you say? That’s embarrassing! I’m really quite unused to such pictures. Here in 1960, you’d never see a picture like that in the press, nor anywhere else for that matter. I suppose I should have known it was a boy dressed up, what with being around Peter all the time. But his dressing like a girl is somehow different. Sure Peter looks like a girl when he’s dressed up. All the Lost Girls have come to accept him as a girl. They call him Wendy, especially when we are out and about. The other day we were interviewed by a journalist about our choir to announce our concert this evening and Peter was with us. The journalist was fascinated by him, much to the annoyance of Tania. The woman asked him a lot of questions. I’m not sure if she was so insistent because he is the only member of the Lost Girls that comes from England or because deep down she sensed something of the ambiguity in him. The person in your picture was clearly out to trick us, a bit like living a lie, at least on paper, and believing it yourself. When Peter dresses up, he’s not trying to fool anyone into believing he’s a girl, not even himself. From what he’s told me, it’s more that he enjoys the feeling of being a girl. He says it’s the only time he feels whole. If he agrees, I’ll ask him to write to you about it.

Thanks for your wishes. I’ve no idea how this talking between different periods of time works, but Easter is long gone here. Today is Sunday July 31st. 1960. I don’t pay much attention to what is going on in the wider world, but I did read in the newspaper a couple of days ago that a man called Richard Nixon was selected as a candidate for the presidency of your country. Is he any good?

I’ll write more later. I have to rush now. I promised to help Lydia prepare some salves for one of our customers. Our little enterprise is really getting off to a good start. And then the Lost Girls have a concert in St Leodegar’s in Luzern this evening. Wish us luck!

Love Kate.

The other letters: #1

More about the Boy & Girl Saga

Boy & Girl – Twelve-year-old Peter secretly dresses as a girl. Imagine his delight when he finds himself in the head of a girl. Yet, despite his wild hopes, that girl is not him. She’s Kaitling, the daughter of a mage in a beleaguered world. Peter has his own problems when a vicious new girl at school threatens to reveal his girly ways. Becoming friends, Kaitlin and Peter join forces to do battle with those who oppose them.

In Search of Lost Girls – Dressed as a girl, Peter sets out in search of his soul-mate Kate who has been ripped from his arms and kidnapped. In his quest, he is hounded by fanatics bent on eliminating those who mess with gender. Meanwhile, Kate has been dumped in a nightmarish girls’ orphanage where she emerges as a decisive figure in the rescue of her fellow orphans. Will the two ever be together again?

We Girls – Retain his androgynous ambiguity or say goodbye to his girlish self, such is the existential choice that besets Peter. Circumstances, however, force both him and Kate to take up other challenges. By straddling the line between child and adult, between carefree creativity and weighty responsibility, between play and work, they find imaginative ways to confront far-reaching problems on which adults persistently turn a blind eye.

Colourful People – What happens when a boy who dresses as a girl, but has no wish to transition, is confronted with a boisterous crowd of transgender youth in a desperate search for a safe haven? The fierce will to be themselves despite the determined opposition of society is common to both the Lost Girls and the Colourful People. Not surprising then that they join forces and advance together. (Currently being written)