Fiction Series

She Moves in Mysterious Ways — Part 3

This is the continuation of an exciting cliffhanger, which can be found here:

Two wires led from the now-collapsed man to an older black man holding a taser. The two friends who accompanied the thug promptly ran out of the diner door and were not chased. The black man identified himself as a cop, flashed his badge, and promptly made a call on his cell phone. “Officers will be here shortly. You two go over there and I’ll make sure our friend here doesn’t go anywhere” he said, pointing toward a table on the other side of the diner.

As if the preceding evening wasn’t enough to mar Cassie’s state of mind, the recent development threw her off the edge.

“It’s okay Cassie.” Zak said, and gave her a hug.

It didn’t matter that she was certainly dehydrated, her tears flowed yet again. “I don’t know why you’re so nice to me.”

“It’s okay now. Unfortunately, people suck.” Zak replied, sitting down, huddled up, visibly making himself smaller.

A couple minutes of silence. Zak broke the silence in a very tentative voice. “Say Cassie, this has turned into a disaster. I wonder if we could start again… could I… have your number?”

Cassie smiled at how sheepishly the request was made. She was never asked for her number, and to be asked when she was at her emotional worst, by the person with which she shared this traumatic experience, was amazing. She happily obliged, with Zak entering the numbers and texting back to her. “Excellent” Zak said, satisfied.

One of the men from the kitchen brought out what appeared to be an emergency blanket (based on its musty smell, starchy texture and defined fold lines) and offered it to Cassie. Cassie, who had become numb to her ‘exposure’ and very sore — the dress had been digging into her ribcage all night — accepted it with gratitude and put it over her body. She cocooned herself in it, with her feet on the bench and knees to her chest, hoping to disappear from the world just as she had done as a five-year old.

Cassie’s senses were coming back to her. She placed that man’s voice and his image— it was the lone guy she rejected at the Cardinal. Her stomach turned as the thought of her getting assaulted on the very first night of clubbing as a woman; she was arrogant, utterly incompetent and a danger to herself.

The police arrived in short order — two male officers, one young and one considerably older. The off-duty officer walked up to greet them. The unruly man, still groggy from the taser and the impact of his skull on Zak and Cassie’s table, was handcuffed and taken out the door.

The older officer returned and came over to Cassie and Zak. He asked for both of their IDs.

He looked skeptically at both of their IDs. “This you?” he motioned to Zak.

“Yes sir.” Zak replied.

“And is this you?” the officer motioning to Cassie.

“Yes sir” she said, looking back to Zak.

The officer maintained a somber face and sighed, entering the information onto his form. “Either of you know that guy? Ever see that guy?”

“No sir” Zak said.

“No” Cassie replied, not making eye contact.

He looked at Cassie. “The bystanders said he lurched at you and called you ‘tranny’. That sound right?” The officer had a loud and definitive voice — certainly the entire diner heard that statement for a second time.

“Yes” Cassie intentionally kept her eyes down and her voice quiet.

“You…” the officer paused, thinking of his words, “… dress up and come down here much?”

“I don’t understand what you’re getting at”

The officer regained his confidence. “you trolling for guys? Getting your kicks? Deceiving these guys?”

Although physically and emotionally exhausted, the glass-eyed girl turned on a dime. Cassie may have been in shambles, but Shawn was still around to protect her.

“What the hell are you implying? I’m the victim here. Kiss off!” Her heartrate jumped so fast she could not keep up.

The officer raised his eyebrows and slightly raised his hands, as one often does to deescalate a situation. “You’re right. Sorry… Shawn. I think I have all that I need. Goodnight sir, goodnight ma’am.”

The younger officer, who looked barely old enough to shave, approached looking concerned. “Ma’am, are you okay? Do you have a way to get home? If not I will take you home.”

Cassie accepted the offer and picked up her purse and gave the emergency blanket back to the nice man in the kitchen.

She went to Zak — “I really need to go home and get some sleep. We talk tomorrow?”

Zak smiled. “Absolutely. Good night Cass”. He hugged her briefly.

Cassie returned home on an uneventful ride in the front seat of the squad car driven by the younger officer. She thanked him outside her apartment. She breathed a huge sigh of relief when she flipped the deadlock on her apartment door. It was the end of a long night.

Cassie woke up in her bed with sunshine in her face. She was alone and wearing only underwear; the red dress laid haphazardly on the floor with her shoes and purse. Her phone was ringing.

Battling a splitting headache, sore legs, and incredibly bad breath, Cassie fumbled to find her cell phone, which remained in her purse from last night. It was Lynn.

“Yep.” Cassie answered the call.

“Say, I just wanted to know if you’re okay.” A concerned voice answered. “I’ve been calling and I pounded on your door a couple of times”

“It was rough last night. I was drunk and exhausted well before I got back home. But I’m good.” Cassie responded in a deadpan voice.

“Rough, huh?” She had a fun inquisitive tone about her, “The guy I saw you leave the Cardinal with didn’t look very big or strong — how ‘rough’ could it have gotten?… I have to say I was surprised to see you leaving with him… especially considering your ‘attitude’ going in.”

Cassie was taken that Lynn knew about her leaving with Zak. “No nothing like that. I mean it got rough when we went over to Ambers for coffee and nosh. A drunk guy yelled at me and threw a bottle.” Cassie replied.

“Oh my god sweetheart” Lynn gasped. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, he screamed ‘trannie’ at me and tried to punch me with a glass bottle.” Cassie decided to come as clean as possible, “and I feel like such a fool. He was this guy — the only guy as it turned out — that I shot down at the Cardinal.”

“Oh Cassie…”

“But the guy was a jerk. I was just off at the corner of the bar feeling sad for myself and completely minding my own business…”

Lynn retorted, “oh yeah, you haven’t encountered the fragile male ego”

“I think it’s even more fragile if the guy is shot down by a trannie” Cassie quipped, realizing she’s feeling for the first time what any cis woman learned in high school.

“Oh Cassie…”

“Oh, and thanks for ditching me for Mr. Preppy Wonderful” Cassie said, full of snark.

“Ditching YOU? Yeah right sister. You were the one that ditched me.” Lynn switched to bitch-mode as well. “I was just in the other room dancing. I came out and tried to find you —and you were just on your way out the door with a guy.”

Cassie had no response and the dead air was palpable. After a half minute Lynn broke the ice. “So… what made you leave with a guy? That goes against the very essence of Cassandra, and I have never heard Cassie say diddly about boys.” Lynn switched into girl gossip mode, a welcome relief to Cassie.

Cassie, who did not want to enter the land of the absurd surrounding the history of her necklace, tried the best cover she could muster. “I dunno. We just hit it off.” She had a warm inflection in her voice, since her statement was most definitely not a lie. But she knew instantly it wasn’t going to fly.

“Dish girl… dish”

“It was strange. we connected. he was so not-like-a-guy. The way he looked at me, he could look into my soul.” she paused, “I felt chills down my spine”

“And a little heart flutter? Perhaps something else…?”

“Well…” Cassie sheepishly said, internally navigating yet more feelings she had never encountered before.

At that moment her phone buzzed. Although she did not recognize the number, she knew who it was.

“Oh, I think he’s calling now. Gotta go Lynn.” Cassie abruptly hung up without care about Lynn’s response or niceties.

Cassie took a deep breath before hitting the green button on the phone. If there was one person she wanted to — needed to — impress, it was him. She mentally prepared her voice to be as spot-on as possible.

“Hello”

“Hi, it’s Zak. I hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time”

Cassie smiled.

“I’m just recovering from last night. It’s going to take a while, I have a lot to learn. I think I just got handed some humble pie as well.” Cassie defaulted into vulnerability, which somehow felt right with Zak.

“You and me both. I’m sorry you went through that. Not all guys are like that you know….” Zak replied.

“you don’t seem to be like other guys.”

“yeah, I know. I’m trying in some areas, but not in others. I think some guy stuff is bullshit, even after all this work in transitioning. You can’t imagine how many times I contemplated turning around”

The word stuck in Cassie’s mind. Transition. She was confused, and she didn’t know if it was her exhausted state or something else.

“transitioning? What do you mean?”

“You couldn’t tell? — I am so proud of myself!” Zak perked up to the point where she could imagine him doing a celebratory ‘high-five’ with someone.

Cassie was simultaneously stunned and delighted — things started making a lot more sense now.

“I’m really dense. No, I didn’t pick up on that”

“Wow, even after ‘magic trans necklace’ talk — I assumed we were on the same page”

“We never did talk about the necklaces beyond our stories — what do you think these things mean?”

“I haven’t the foggiest idea. But it brought me to be my true self, and it appears to have done the same for you, albeit without yummy pizza! I bet as we get older we will look back fondly of these times.”

“yes we will” Cassie responded, with an air in her voice and euphoria in her spirit. “yes we will”.

The End

Since you read this far, I sincerely thank you for going on this ride with me. I had no idea when I started with the title where it would end up. I enjoyed these characters and hope I can invite them to play in another story soon!

-nova grace ❤️