Educating Danielle
Part Ten
by Karen E. Lea
Chapter Forty Seven
We drove down the
motorway heading towards the studio; we decided Danielle to dress as femininely
as possible. She had on a mid thigh black skirt, three inch court shoes and a
sleeveless figure hugging white top. Her makeup was flawless. We were first in
this morning; we opened up, turned the lights on, started the computers and
threw the junk mail faxes into the recycling bin, where in the hell do they
come from?
Sonja breezed in
a couple a minutes later, “Good morning darlinks.” she cooed.
“Good morning
Sonja. Could you come in to my office please, I need to talk to you and its
very important.” She hugged Danielle and told her how beautiful she looked and
finally sat down. “Sonja, what I’m about to tell you may affect your catalogue,
but I will assist in any way to fix problems this may cause.”
She stared at me,
but didn’t comment which worried me. “We… I mean I, haven’t been totally
straight with you concerning Danielle.” Normally I couldn’t stop this woman
talking; she stared at me offering no comment. “Yesterday, when I was hesitant
in letting Danielle do your catalogue and don’t get me wrong, she loves working
with you.”
“My beautiful
Danielle is wonderful.”
“Well as I was
saying, what I have to tell you may alter your feelings. Danielle is
transgendered.”
“What is this
transgendered?” she asked after a moments thought.
“Umm.”
“Is not disease,
she will live.”
“No it’s not a
disease, I…….”
“What dad is
trying to say is, I am a boy.”
“You how you say,
pull the leg.”
“No, not pull the
leg.” Now I was speaking like her. “Danielle is a sixteen year old boy.”
“I am a boy
Sonja; I thought you should know, it’s not right to deceive.”
“This is plot,
you have better offer, you want me to tear contract up.”
“No, no, no
Sonja.” I said starting to get exasperated.
“I double money.”
“We don’t wont
you to double money; we just want you to be aware that Danielle is not a girl.”
“I know girl when
I see one, Danielle girl.”
Tempting as it was
for Daniel to strip and prove himself, I thought better of it. “Okay. You are
happy to continue shoot.”
“Yes we continue.
Darlink you have drug problem, yes.”
“No.” I answered
waving them from the office.
“Ahh, denial is
bad,” she said to Danielle on the way out. Danielle giggled.
Well. That was a
complete waste of five minutes; I would have had a better response if I talked
to the wall. I pondered the conversation that I would have with Moira this
afternoon. I worked away on some emails. Kelly came in twenty minutes later and
we went over some things she wasn’t quite sure of, but she was one smart young
lady, she always had a better, quicker way to do things. After nine, I rang
Moira and made an appointment to see her at three thirty.
The day bubbled
along quite quickly. They finished Sonja’s work at one thirty and she paid her
bill waxing lyrical about Danielle. She hugged and kissed Danielle as she waved
goodbye to the rest of us.
Cathy and
Charlene went off to do the winter shoe collection, in the meantime a car
carrier turned up with three cars for tomorrow’s studio shots. John finished
the panty hose ad and started to study the cars.
Just after two
thirty, Danielle and I headed off for our appointment with Moira. We were a
couple of minutes early and sat in the foyer. While we waited, we seemed to be
in the busiest foyer in Sydney. Nearly every employee on the floor must have
dropped or picked up an envelope from the receptionist. I realised then that
every body was trying to get a peek at Danielle.
Moira came out
and greeted us and led us in to her office overlooking Hyde Park. We declined
the offer of coffee, as we settled in to chairs in front of her desk. She
looked at us expectantly. “I hope this good news Jeff.”
“No. Not really,
we have come to give you some information we feel that should know.”
“I told you
yesterday, no is not the correct answer.”
“When we explain
why we are here, I think you will accept no.” She raised her eyebrows. “Let me
preface….”
There was a knock
at the door, “Come in.” Moira called out. A gentleman, tall, in a well-cut suit
entered, he was in his fifties, greying hair and a well-groomed moustache. “Ah,
Mister Spencer, welcome, this is Jeff Williams and his daughter Danielle.”
We both rose and
shook his hand, “Delighted. Please call me Abe.”
It was going to
be hard enough to tell Moira, let alone her boss as well.
“I can see why
Moira was taken by your daughter, she is very beautiful.”
“Thank you.”
Danielle blushed.
Moira bought Abe
up to date, then motioned for me to continue.
“Where was
I,….yes, let me preface what I am about to tell you by saying that I have
enjoyed our brief association with your company, you are very professional
people and it has been a pleasure to work with you.”
“Thank you Jeff. But
why the past tense…?
I held my hand
up. “Let me explain. When you saw the pictures of Danielle on John’s desk that
Saturday, they were never meant to be seen by anyone outside Starburst.
Unfortunately they were seen by you and a music video producer who had dropped
in to see John.”
“But what’s
unfortunate about that, she is very beautiful, a great future is assured.”
“I’m coming to
that, I would like your assurance that what I’m about to tell you here is for
your ears only.”
“Yes of course.”
“Danielle is
transgendered.”
“Trans what?” Abe
asked.
“Gendered.
Danielle is my son.”
“Surely not.”
Moira gasped.
“Yes he is a boy.
Although he is very androgynous to look at as a boy.”
“Are you telling
us this beautiful creature is a boy?” Abe said incredulously.
“Yes. He has
quite a presence in photos.”
Moira studied
Danielle “The young boy Daniel…….did all the running around for Cindy and you
at the last catalogue…….”
Danielle nodded
her head, “Yes that was me.”
Moira collapsed
back in to her chair stunned.
“I’m very sorry.
We had to come and tell the truth. Now you see why I wasn’t very helpful
Tuesday. I was hoping you would give up.”
“The person she
worked for Tuesday knows?” Moira asked.
“We told her this
morning, she didn’t believe us and continued with the shoot.” I took the
contract from my briefcase and put it on the desk. “I will make sure my
solicitor destroys his copy. I say again we had to tell the truth for every
body’s sake.”
They both thought
in silence. “Will she change um….sex?” Abe asked.
“I really
don’t…..”
“Dad I’ll answer.
I don’t know. At the moment I’m sixteen and finding my feet.”
We stood to go
and shook hands. I apologized once again and we left the office towards the car
and home.
§§§
Moira and Abe
stared at each other as the door closed. Tears welled in Moira’s eyes; she had
put heart and soul in to this project. To have it snatched away at this time
was just too much. “I’m sorry Abe. I thought we had it all sewn up. Every
contingency covered, I for a minute didn’t think this one.”
“Yes. One
wouldn’t normally consider such a problem.”
“People have been
working day and night on this, the overtime bill is horrendous.”
“That aside. She
has every thing we wanted for this project, style, poise and grace, I mean he.
Gods know what I mean.”
“She certainly
does it well.”
“Even you think
of her female.”
There was a knock
at the door. “Come.” Moira called. A junior girl entered, “This letter needs to
be signed to make in to night’s courier bag.”
“Thank you
Jennifer.” Moira said signing the letter.
“Jennifer?” Abe
asked.
“Yes Mister
Spencer.”
“Did you just see
the young girl who was just here?”
“Yes. I think
everybody sneaked a peek.”
“What did you
think of her?”
“Me?”
“Yes. Your
personal opinion.”
“She was
stunningly beautiful; I wished I look like that.”
“Nothing else.”
“No, she’s really
stunning.”
“Thank you
Jennifer.” Jennifer left with the letter.
“You don’t
seriously think we should go ahead?” Moira asked.
“I really don’t
know. But I can’t help think we are missing out here.”
“But we have to
consider the consequences.”
“Of employing a
transgendered boy? I’m sure somewhere in the thousands of employees, we have
one or two already.”
“But not
representing the company publicly.”
“That is true.”
“I thought I
would have had this signed, sealed and delivered for Easter.” Moira lamented.
“Let’s sleep on
it. We’ll talk at nine in the morning.”
§§§
We headed over
the Bridge for home. “You’ve lost a lot of money over this haven’t you?”
Danielle asked.
“It’s not the
money; it’s the regular work for the studio.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Hey, it’s not
your fault. Don’t blame yourself, its just fate stepping in with a curve ball.”
I said, “Any way we have to get you back to school.”
“I like working
for you.”
“It’s fun for me
too, I know I can’t force you, but I would like you to finish school.”
“I know daddy,
you care too much.”
Chapter Forty Eight
Arriving home, we
told Laura about our afternoon at Spencer’s. While it may have seemed foolish,
I felt better that we had told the truth, than to have a lie get completely get
out of control. “Anyway, we would have been caught out if they asked for ID or
a birth certificate.” I said aloud.
“Oh shit.” Laura
exploded and raced for the bedroom.
Danielle and I
stared at each other and followed. “Mum, you okay.”
We entered the
bedroom. Laura was digging in her boxes we had bought up from the house. “You
okay?” I asked.
“Sorry yeah…it’s
here somewhere, I haven’t seen it since she was a baby.”
“Seen what since
who was a baby?”
“Danielle’s birth
certificate.”
“Daniel’s birth
certificate?” Danielle corrected.
“Something like
that.” she said digging frantically.
“Your mum’s lost
it, big time.”
“Looks like it.
Will you adopt me?”
“Stop it you two.
I lose a son and gain two of the three stooges.” she retorted.
“Nuckk nuck nuck.
Say the word and we’ll make it three.” I said with a smile.
“I don’t know why
I love you sometimes.”
“Probably my good
looks.”
She poked out her
tongue as she started on another box, “I know it’s here some where……here it
is.” She pulled out an envelope, with no markings. “I should have thought of
this last night when we were talking.”
Pulling out the
document inside, I began reading. It was a birth certificate for Daniell An
Marsden, female, father unknown. I looked at Laura, “What the…?”
“It’s a long
story, which I forgot till now, I’m not proud of myself and it was a silly
idea, but I felt better at the time.” She said as we walked back to the lounge
room.
We settled back
on the lounge, “When Daniel was born; I was sixteen and very upset. They wanted
to take Daniel away for adoption and every body was getting involved, I was in
tears most of the time. Anyway the doctor, who was near retirement, came in to
fill the birth form. He started filling the form out, but he started at the
bottom, signed it and was working his way up. A nurse came in and asked him to
come and look at a patient in the next ward. He left the form on the table and
trundled off. He must have forgotten, never came back to finish it. So I did it
for him. I purposely misspelt the name and checked the box female. It made me
feel so much better and I mailed it off.”
“But wouldn’t you
have been asked for it when he started school or something?”
Sure. When I
realised what it said, I hid it and just kept putting them off, till they gave
up asking. Daniel used to come home from school with a note from school every
week for about two months when he was six.”
“So we have
Daniel Andrew become Daniell An the well known typing mistake.”
Danielle giggled.
“Mum I love you so much.”
“I wish I
remembered last night.”
“Well it really
doesn’t change anything, I’m still glad we told the truth.” I said.
“Me too.”
Danielle said.
“Me three.” Laura
said. “Let’s have dinner and a early night.”
Next morning saw
us heading back to the studio. It was Laura’s last day at work before her eight
weeks off and she was really excited. Tonight we were heading up the coast for
Easter at my holiday unit.
Arriving at the
studio, Sam and Sal were waiting for us. They walked over as soon as I parked
the Rover. “Hey babe…Jeff…look we’ve come back with another offer.”
“Sam. We are not
interested at any price.”
“Yeah anyway,
we’re going to offer ten grand, the director reckons we can knock it off in
three days, max.”
This guy does not
listen. “We are not interested.”
“Twenty grand.”
“Read my lips.
No.”
“Thirty.”
“Sam. We looked
at a contract the other day, hundred thousand for a TV commercial.” Half a lie.
Finally got
through to him, his jaw dropped. “Who’s throwing crazy money like that around?”
“I can’t comment,
but that was knocked back too.”
Sam and Sal
shrugged their shoulders, “We’ll go and punch some numbers.”
If I keep up
these lies up, my nose will be three foot long. We went upstairs and prepared
for the day. Everybody drifted in over the next half hour and I assigned the
tasks for the day. It became a routine day.
§§§
Moira sat down in
her office at eight thirty with a cup of coffee. She read her emails and
sighed. She had slept about an hour last night, that wasn’t consecutive with
the most stupid dream, chased around menswear by eighty-five drag queens. She
wanted to hate Jeff and Danielle, but she couldn’t, morally they had done the
right thing. It must have been hard for Jeff to sit here and tell us. The worst
part was, Danielle didn’t look like a boy, she looked like a girl, talked like
a girl. If he looked like a boy in a dress, they wouldn’t be in this mess. She
sighed again and finished her coffee.
She was deciding
how to start the day, when Abe appeared at the door. “Come in.”
Abe entered and
shut the door, made himself comfortable “Good nights sleep?” he asked.
“No. And you?”
“No.”
“Any more
thoughts on the subject?” Moira asked.
“Coherent and
logical, no. Like I said yesterday, I can’t but think this is slipping through
our fingers to our loss.”
“Our thoughts are
running parallel.” Moira answered.
“The thing I kept
coming back to is, if this became public knowledge, what’s the worst that could
happen?”
“Looking at her,
would people believe that she is a boy?”
“Probably not.
The thing that bothers me is other organisations pressuring Jeff when we were
there first.”
“Yes. I thought
that too.” Moira said looking at her empty coffee cup. She phoned for more
coffee.
“Is the next catalogue
on schedule?”
“Well it was till
yesterday at four o clock.”
“What about the
girl we have used before?”
“That spoiled
brat. I gave her marching orders Tuesday afternoon thinking Danielle was in the
bag.”
“That’s
unfortunate.”
“It is and it
isn’t. The way she carried on at the last catalogue shoot, I was embarrassed.
She payed out on the young boy……..Daniel……..”
“What’s that?”
“What poetic
justice. Daniel is now Danielle.” Moira explained what happened at the studio.
There was a knock at the door. Jennifer entered with a tray and put it on the
desk. “Thank you Jennifer. Anything need my attention?”
“No. But every
one wants to know if the girl signed.”
“No not yet, we
have a few points to go over.” Jennifer left and Moira poured the coffee.
Abe sipped the
coffee, then spoke, “Based on what we know, what would your risk assessment
be?”
“Hmm. A fairly
minor risk of being tumbled, it depends on how many people know she’s a boy.
You know Abe we shouldn’t even be thinking like this, we should walk away.”
“I know, I know.”
Abe said rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Business decisions should be logical,
structured and not based on hunches. But since I met her yesterday I have this
unshakable feeling deep down this is right. Look at this way, Jeff could have
said nothing, signed the contract and we would be none the wiser. All he has
done is put the onus on us. They haven’t said they wouldn’t do it.”
“That’s okay,
you’re right, they haven’t said no.”
“Set up a meeting
this afternoon at their place. If the ship sinks, I’ll just have to go with
it.”
§§§
By eleven o clock
my routine day was in tatters, Moira rang for and made an appointment for three
thirty. When I enquired what it about, she just said, “See you this afternoon.”
Just after eleven
thirty the phone rang, “Good morning, Starburst.”
“Jeff Williams
please.”
“Speaking.”
“Rhonda……Rhonda
Baxter, Beagle and Associates.”
I had been trying
to get work from this company for years. They anointed themselves as the number
one agency, but when it came to using others, cheapest was best. “Yes Rhonda,
what can I do for you?”
“We have a
minor….no a major crisis on our hands and I’m hoping you may be able to help
us?”
“Do my best.”
“We are doing a
print and poster campaign for a local firm who has promised their New York head
office that the proofs for authorisation will be emailed to them for before
tomorrow morning, their time.”
“And.”
“Well the
photograph needed hasn’t been taken yet. I have six people blaming each other
for the problem. But the fact remains, it hasn’t been done.”
I wanted to say,
what about the usual people you use, but I bit my tongue, “What’s involved?”
“Two girls,
fifteen, sixteen, on a beach in bikinis holding a packet of tampons.”
“And they have to
be certain tampons I guess?”
“Yes.”
“Where are they?”
“Here at our
office, can you do it? We’ll work all night if we have to.”
They might want
to work all night, but we didn’t want to. “I’ll talk to John and make some
phone calls for some girls. Talk to you soon. Bye.”
I walked
downstairs, discussed it with John. “Yeah. We’ll fit it in, need some girls
though.”
“Just about to
make some phone calls.”
“What about young
Kelly and Danielle?”
“I don’t
know….Kelly maybe okay with it. Danielle, I’d rather not.”
“Just a thought.”
Thinking as I
walked, I found Cindy. “Do we have any bikinis hanging around that would suit
teenage girls?”
She rummaged in a
draw, “Yep. Should be able to sort something. What’s happening?”
Explaining the
phone call briefly as I could.
“Why do these things
always happen before a holiday weekend?” she asked.
“Buggered if I
know.” I said as I went upstairs to my office.
After four phone
calls, I was no nearer than when I started. All the girls were away or at
school. John came up to see how I was faring, “No good.” I replied.
“Kelly?” he
asked.
“Haven’t got that
far.”
“Won’t know till
we ask. Hey Kelly, got a sec.” he called out.
Kelly poked her
head in the door, “Kelly, we need two girls in an ad, want to be one of them?”
John asked.
“Yeah I guess.”
she answered. I explained more detail to her, she then asked, “Who’s the other
girl?”
“When we find her
we will let you know.”
“What about me
daddy?” Danielle said from the door.
“I think we have
enough trouble at the moment, without adding to it.” I said.
“Please daddy.”
“This is a bikini
shoot and I………”
“Give her a go
Jeff. What’s the worst that could happen?” John asked.
“We all could be
out of a job.”
“No guts, no
glory, let’s do it. Ring her back. Come on you two, let’s go and see Cindy.”
Out voted. I rang
Rhonda back and told her we could do it and our price and terms. She thought it
was a bit expensive.
“Fine. I’ll ring
the girls back and tell them it’s off.”
“No, no, it’s on,
I’ll bring the tampons and brief up myself.”
“Please hurry,
its Easter and everybody would like to get away.”
John was
finishing off the third car, when the car carrier turned up to take away them
away. Once I had the driver’s signature, I went in search of the trio to see
how they were getting on. The small top on Kelly made her breasts seem even
bigger, although she looked fifteen.
Danielle’s boys’
bits were the next problem. The gaffe could be seen and dispensed with; Cindy
went to work with some surgical tape and after some struggle was satisfied with
the outcome. Danielle complained it was a bit uncomfortable.
“The things we
do.” I quipped. She poked out her tongue.
Cathy and
Charlene arrived back from the outside job they had been out to do. They bought
the gear in and I explained what was going to happen. I glad Cathy was back;
she was the real wiz on the computer. Once every thing was put away, she
started to sort beach scenes on the computer.
Meanwhile, Rhonda
had turned up with the tampons and the layout they were looking for. “When are
you going, I’d like to come.” she asked.
“Going where?”
“The beach.”
“This is the
computer age, we make a beach digitally.”
“We can
photograph them in front of Buckingham Palace if you want.” Cathy stated.
“This is an
account worth millions.”
“Trust us.”
The layout called
for two girls kneeling on towels at the beach, holding the box of tampons.
Friends sharing. John told the two girls to relax as he positioned them. He
took a couple of shots, moved them around, but they were both too
self-conscious.
“Time out.” I
called as I walked over to them. “Girls, you look great, but you’re a bit
stiff. Relax. Remember when you were at Dural at the pool, you touched each
other a lot, laughing like old friends.”
They nodded.
“Well, that’s where we are heading here. Kelly, I want you touch Danielle’s arm
and whisper something in her ear, something outrageous that will surprise her
okay.”
She nodded
hesitantly, “I’ll try.”
John repositioned
himself and Danielle held the box of tampons. “Ready?” he asked.
I counted down
with my fingers on my hand. Kelly on one reached for Danielle’s arm and
whispered something in to her ear. We couldn’t hear, but it got the result.
John just kept snapping till the moment passed. “Yeess. That was terrific.” He
yelled.
He took the
camera to the computer and downloaded the images. We held a conference on what
we thought was the best. Cathy merged the images and spent ten minutes
‘cleaning up’ till it met her approval and printed an eight by ten glossy.
“Is that what you
were after?” John asked Rhonda.
“Yes. More than
happy with that, I can’t believe it’s done. The pressures off.”
“We aim to
please. Can the girls get changed now?” I asked.
“Oh yes.”
§§§
Kelly and
Danielle entered the wardrobe room and Kelly locked the door. They both undid the
strings around their necks holding the cups of the bikinis up. They then untied
each other’s strap and they both stood there topless. Kelly embraced Danielle
and kissed him. “I’ve been dying to do that all week. I like you a lot
Danielle.”
“I like you too.”
“Do you like what
I said out there?”
“Did you mean
that?”
“I sure did.”
Danielle had
wiggled out of the bikini bottoms and asked, “Could you help me get this tape
off?”
“Sure.”
Danielle laid on
the small lounge, while Kelly removed the tape, “Ow, that hurt.”
“Let me kiss it
better.”
“Kelly?”
“Mmmm.”
“That’s nice.”
Kelly came up to
Danielle’s face and kissed him. “Kelly you can’t leave me like this, I’ll never
hide it.”
“Just relax,
Kelly will fix it.”
§§§
While the girls
changed, I took Rhonda upstairs. She gave me a cheque and I gave a receipt in
return. “I hope we can do more business?”
“You’ve won me.
I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thanks.” Cathy
returned with the photos in an envelope and told her they had also been emailed
to her office. Rhonda excused herself and headed back to her office. Danielle
and Kelly came back in their street clothes holding hands and giggling. I took
them in to my office, took some cash from the safe and counted one thousand
dollars each in to their hands. Kelly looked at the money, then looked at me
and burst in to tears.
Danielle cuddled
her, “What’s the matter?”
“I’m so happy.”
“Hate to see you
sad.” I said.
“Oh Jeff, you
don’t know what this means to me……before you gave me this job, I was ready to
move back to my parents in the country and I owe people money. Thank you.”
“Well you earnt
it. That was great out there.”
“Thank you.” She
said kissing me.
“Thank you
Daddy.” Danielle said following suit.
“You two will get
me in to trouble.”