Suddenly, such freedom is opened to Tim and Abbie. No longer shackled to public transportation, they have extra time in the morning to begin their day. Time for them to spend on some morning enjoyment. Whether in the bed, bath, or shower. All made possible by now having a car of their own.
Neither has ever owned their own car. Tim has his license, thanks to Leslie. When he was sixteen, she taught him to drive using her car and urged him to get a license. She told Tim, congratulating him on this milestone, that whenever he would like or needed to, Tim could borrow her car.
Tim only took up this offer a few times in the years that followed. Though when Les, Cyn, and Tim would go grocery shopping and the like, Les always had Tim drive for them.
This first morning though, Abbie and Tim need to get dress quickly as the contractor is to be there at eight a.m. They are just finishing breakfast when he arrives with his crew. After introducing Abbie, Tim talks about what needed to be done, like the paint jobs for the last two rooms upstairs. Moving the bed out of the extra room, replacing it with the one in the garage, along with vanity for the room. Installing a garage opener.
When he comes to the final task, the contractor suggests that with all the work Tim has done on the house, perhaps a brand-new garage door should be installed. And yes, with a door opener. Abbie agrees with the idea. As she says, she is paying for this round of work on the house, Tim concurs with her.
The contractor pulls up options for garage doors on his tablet for them to pick from. Abbie right away sees the one she likes. It has small windows at the top with pseudo handles and a style to look like stable doors. The white door looks nice. The contractor suggests that they paint the garage frame the same forest green as the front door for contrast.
Abbie can visualize this the forest green front door whose frame is white, with the green around the white garage door. That green also runs around the trim of the house. Yes, it is all settled. Abbie and Tim, now hurrying, go to the garage and off to work in their new ride. Tim drops Abbie at work and then heads to his assigned space. This is nice, even with some side things this morning, Tim is at work a good fifteen minutes early. He hadn’t ever really considered how much longer the commute is on the bus, with all its stops.
Some of Tim’s coworkers see him getting out of the new vehicle, now wondering even more what is going on. Not just the new car, but the premium parking space. What is going on with Tim these days?
Meanwhile, Abbie goes about getting all issues taken care of at her job. By lunch, she is caught up, and rather than getting something to eat, she begins to change her address first at work, then the reoccurring bills and credit cards. Work from the start had her listed as Abbie Adams, but for most bills and credit cards, she has gone by A.E. Adams (the initials of her given name). Thinking about this, and the bank manager’s comments last week, Abbie ponders what she would need to do to change her name and gender legally.
She does some searching online and overreacts some when reading the requirements in the United Kingdom to do so. The information was from a government site, which she took to be the current requirements.
Abbie has never checked into this before, as she has always taken life as it comes. After reading some of the requirements, Abbie is in tears. She is insulted by the United Kingdom’s rules she finds that states to change your gender, you have to have a doctor diagnose you as having ‘gender dysphoria.’
Then Abbie reads from the United States sites the requirements to change your gender on your birth certificate. While states vary, it seems basic that you need a physician's certificate that you have undergone gender reassignment surgery.
Abbie is enraged about this. Making a person announce publicly that they are abnormal in some way. That it is a ‘disease’ causing her to feel the way she does. Or that she actually undergoes the full gender reassignment surgery which Abbie has never wanted. She did enjoy getting her breast augmented some, but that is all she wants to be done ever, especially now she is with Tim.
Abbie always makes sure she is looking at authoritative and valid sites when she researches things. But she does have a habit of collecting information and not checking other sites to see if it holds true, which is happening to Abbie right now. It takes Abbie a few minutes. She cries and fills herself with indignation before she can calm herself.
Abbie centers herself and searches more. Then she finds that she can change her birth certificate in the United States much easier. All that is required is a simple statement from a physician. As stated, ‘whom the person has a doctor-patient relationship stating that based on his or her professional opinion the true gender identity of the applicant and that it is expected that this will continue to be the gender with which the applicant will identify in the future.’
Abbie calms herself as she knows the Director of Pathways is a physician. He knows her well enough to complete the form letter for her. She does look at other state's requirements, and many are not as progressive as Kansas, where she was born.
While Abbie lived most of her life in Nebraska, when the family expanded its agricultural business, she was born in Kansas, where the first farms started. Abbie had first looked at Nebraska’s conditions, which did follow the sex reassignment surgery requirement, that initially unset Abbie so much. Then remembering her place of birth, is pleased to find their much more lenient point of view.
Centering herself again, Abbie contemplates about after she has the altered birth certificate, she can then ask for her passport to be changed and other legal documents. She is calmed and happy that it will be relatively simple for her to do, but then starts to wonder about transgender people in other areas. This leads Abbie to consider something even more that she realizes she has to confront.
All that Abbie has found today gives her this energy to take a stand and help others who are forced into antiquated requirements. Her choice in how she sees herself and presents herself to the world is not some ‘disease.’ Or that suggesting that this way requires her to undergo extensive and expensive surgery.
Learning about this side of things makes Abbie ponder things. Things about her and Tim together. What if there were times when she would have to conform to the gender assigned her. Would Tim accept that? Abbie knows that Tim loves her, so is it just her?
When Tim picks her up for their now short ride home, Abbie tells him about the initial search results and her being upset.
“Tim, all this is going to take time, which is fine, but legally I am still seen as a male,” Abbie tells him. Tim knows this but hearing it out loud brings it home to him.
He loves Abbie for who she is. What some piece of paper says doesn’t matter. Then he considers things from Abbie’s point of view. Having to show such ID and be questioned about it would be embarrassing and hurtful. He can understand why Abbie got upset, bringing this all home to her.
He is not sure what to say to Abbie to comfort her, more than understanding her upset.
When they get home, all the work has been done. The new garage door looks terrific. They see the crew packing up after finishing. Tim leaves the car in the driveway and walks over to the contractor to thank him. The contractor hands Tim the remote for the door.
Back in the car, Tim opens the garage door, and they pull in. Both head upstairs first to check out the two rooms now also finished. Everything thing in the house now is different and new. The spare room looks lovely in the light lavender, and Abigail’s room in rosy pink is perfect. Even the stenciled Abigail’s Corner, and over the doorway, Abigail’s Room.
Next, they go to their bedroom to change clothes. Tim’s new suits all came with wooden hangers to keep them from getting wrinkled. His new suits, being of much better quality and brand, with the right hangers, keep his suits crisp and unwrinkled. This is something Tim’s suits never had in the past. Now each suit looks good each time he puts one on.
Tim changes to shorts and a t-shirt, throws his work shirt in the laundry hamper and turns to Abbie, who is taking her time getting out of her work clothes. Tim tells her that he is going to start supper while she gets changed. Abbie just nods to him with a wistful expression on her face. Wondering if something is wrong but not wanting to ask until Abbie tells him, Tim heads to the kitchen.
Once alone in the bedroom, Abbie goes to the closet and lifts a cardboard box off the top shelve. She opens it and takes khakis and a shirt from it. Closing the box back up, Abbie puts it back on the shelve. All her clothes discarded now, Abbie goes to the shower, she scrubs herself all over and washes her hair. Abbie is making sure all traces of makeup or hairstyling are gone.
After drying herself, Abbie puts on the clothes she had taken from the box and dries her hair. She just makes sure it is dry, and then pulls it back into a ponytail at the back of her neck. Looking at the mirror, Abbie now sees Abe looking back at her. Someone she has not seen for years. She sighs deeply, then goes to the top of the stairs and calls down to Tim to come and sit in the living room.