Warning: the following contains adult situations and extreme language. If you are easily offended, or just are not old enough legally to be viewing this, please leave now. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Becoming Antonia

By Toni Trepasso

 

From Chapter Two

I pulled into the garage back home at around 10 pm, and mom was there to meet me at the door. She hugged me tight and told me Captain Brown had called and told her what had happened. I told her it was no big deal and I knew how to handle myself.

“I’m just glad you left the hammer on the bike when you brought it here mom.”

“I was wondering what that was for. You want to tell me the real reason for it?”

“No, that’s it, just to get the attention of people who either don’t want to, or are to busy to pay attention to what’s going on around them. That’s all.”

I kissed her, and went in to take a shower. I let the water wash away all the aches that riding a rigid motorcycle can give you. I went into my room, and after putting on my shorts and a clean t-shirt, I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Chapter Three

My dreams puzzled and worried me as my exhausted body lay in slumber. I kept seeing a woman who’s face I could not see. She and I appeared to be married? 

“She is so beautiful. I’m lucky to have found her. Wait a minute... this can’t be! I’m a woman now, and New York State doesn’t honor same sex marriage. But it has to be real. I mean, I can smell, touch, and taste her.

My mouth went to the cleft between her legs, and just as my tongue was about to part her lips, I was brought back to reality by my mother shaking me.

“Come on Toni, get up, we have to go to the Physical Therapist’s this morning.”

“Fuck” I mumbled under my breath and got up to make my way to the bathroom. I looked in the mirror and the woman standing back at me looked like hell. Actually she looked more like someone who had gone thru hell, came back, then had to go thru more hell. (No shit right?)

I finally got a good look at myself as I washed the morning out of my face. For the first time since I woke up from the coma, and found out I was a woman now, I could see that I actually did look a lot like the old me. My cheek bones were softer and a bit higher like they would have been had I been born a woman. As I looked at myself I thought how much I looked like my mom, no, more like my mom’s late sister, my aunt Patty. Then I looked into my eyes, and started to cry again. I still had dad’s eyes. All the thoughts and pain came rushing back as I just stood there and looked. I thought of all the good times. Everything he taught me. I remember learning to ride a bike, and going fishing for the first time. I remember his surprise for me when he built me my first race car at age 4. (Yes kids that young race, www.QMA.com.) Him teaching me to throw a ball and how to hit a baseball. Learning to drive a car, and even having “the talk.” My daze was broken by a knock on the door.

“Tony, you alright in there?”

“Yeah mom, just have to pee.”

“Well hurry up and get dressed, we have to leave shortly.”

I finished the morning ritual and quickly threw on a pair of capri’s and a loose t-shirt. I put on my new sneakers and joined mom as we got in the car to drive to the hospital for PT.

I started to think about how the old me would never had worn something like this. I had on pink pants and a purple shirt. (Ok, my fashion sense still sucks so sue me.) The old me usually wore blue jeans, and most of my shirts were black, with either a bike shop or race team logo on them. But this felt right. I was comfortable in the outfit and it looked good on me. My inner monolog started to hold a conversation on it’s own.

“I’m taking this better then I should be.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well think about it. You were at a party, fell down a hill and woke up as a woman.”

“And you think freaking out will solve anything?”

“No, I guess not, but I don’t want to loose the old me.”

“I’m still here, and not going anywhere. Just relax and go with it. It’s either that or end up in jail for killing someone and THAT would suck.”

“Deal.”

We pulled up to the hospital and made our way thru security, to the Physical and Occupational Therapy wing. Shortly after we got there a woman came over and introduced herself as Kristie my PT, and lead me away for some tests.

“So I’ve been reading your file since I got it this morning Toni. And I must say, you have an interesting medical history. Tell me, how did such a slender woman like yourself ever jack for a Nextel Cup team?”

“Uh... you don’t know what’s going on do you?”

She looked puzzled. “What do you mean?”

I waved mom over and handed the therapist the photo book they gave me when I woke up. She looked at it with astonishment, and awe. Flipping back and forth several times between the male and female pictures.

“You mean this is you? YOU’RE the one I heard about from my sister in Hornell?”

I looked at her name tag. I saw her last name and realized her sister was my doctor when I was in my coma.

“Yes. And to answer your first question, THAT is how I was a jack man for a Nextel Cup team.”

She smiled and closed the book. “So tell me, what’s Junior really like?” (90% of the women I tell I was in the Cup ask about Dale Earnhardt Jr.)

“He’s a lot like his dad. A real down to earth guy who understands that the fans are what make the sport. Hell he even sat outside the Nascar office trailer one day and signed autographs for over 3 hours.” (I didn’t tell her that he did it as a form of protest against some of the officials who were trapped in the trailer for the entire time he sat there.)

“So what is it you do now for a living?”

“Well I WAS a fork truck mechanic in Oswego.”

“Ok, lets check your strength and see what we can do to get you back in the salt mines.”

She lead me over to a series of machines that would test my physical strength and endurance. I won’t bore you with the details of the tests. It’s just, lift this, push that, pull this, squeeze that kind of stuff. She took me into another room where another lady sat at her desk.

“Bonny, this is Toni. Toni, this is Bonny, our Occupational Therapist.” I held out me hand for her.

“Pleasure to finally meet you Toni.” As she shook my hand. “So what do you do for a living?”

“I’m a fork truck mechanic.”

Kristie chimed in. “Don’t forget to tell her you used to work in Nascar, Toni.”

I started to blush when Bonny smiled.

“Nascar huh? So, what’s Brian Vickers like.”

“I never had the chance to meet him. But that’s really in my past now. So what am I here for?”

“Well were going to test your manual dexterity, and see how well you can handle simple household tasks.”

I just nodded and she led me to a kitchen to open a can and then make a pot of soup. Then she had me fold laundry. Mom, always trying to be funny tells her that I was now doing something I usually never did at home. I just stuck my tongue out at her.  The tests went on, with me working with smaller and smaller items ending with her having me make a paperclip necklace, which I did one handed to be a smart ass.

“Well Toni, I don’t think your accident has caused any harm to your fine motor skills, and I think you can return to work as soon as you want to.”

I smiled, and thanked her. Then she saw the book of pictures that Kristie had left on her desk, and started to look thru them. She really didn’t show any emotion as she flipped thru the book and then handed it to me.

“I was wondering how you were able to crew for a Nascar team. I guess that explains it, don’t forget your book.”

“Yeah, what a spring it’s been.” I took the book and told her the short version of what happened. Then I thanked her and we left for the lawyers office to sign the final papers to make my name change official. (Pretty standard stuff, “sign here, and here, and here.”) Then, we headed over to the DMV and got my licence changed over and had a new picture taken. I called work and told them that I would be in, in the morning to start my job again. They told me that tomorrow was just the safety meeting and I didn’t need to be in till 7.

I walked in the meeting room and you could have heard a pin drop as I took a seat with my crew and re-introduced myself. All the guys could do was just look at me and try to figure out which hidden camera show they were on.

As the meeting started the plant manager welcomed me back and reminded everyone that I was still the same knowledgeable person I was before and then pointed to my crew leader to remind him that no pranks would be tolerated. As the meeting ended some of the mill operators came over and shook my hand to welcome me back. Then Ed, my crew leader pulled me aside.

“You really doing ok as you look like you are? I mean, come on, that was one hell of an ordeal you went thru.”

“No, I’m fine Ed. I still have nightmares, but they say they’ll get better over time. We have night’s this week right? So tomorrow at 5pm?”

He nodded and shook my hand as I left to go get new work boots. I forgot about them when mom and I picked up new clothes. So on the way home I stopped at the mall and picked up and new pair of steel toes in my new shoe size.

I did the best I could to get on the night schedule, (working swing shift can suck sometimes.) and went in to work the next night a little early, so I could see if anything was waiting for me at my work table. There was nothing major going on so I just unlocked my box, and then went to the team briefing for the shift. I ended up in remelt for the night working on one of the 25000 pound trucks, so I loaded up my tools. I took a look at the work order to see what I might need, and drove my golf cart to the area of the truck and started to go thru it like I always did.

I was bent over the rear fender leaning into the engine bay, when I heard a rude comment and felt a slap on the ass. I jumped off the truck and there were two big guys standing there with shit eating grins on their faces, and there was me, with a big mag light in one hand and a big box wrench in the other.

“Alright, which one of you scum bags touched me?”

They both just smiled and started to close in on me. The ugly one made a lunge for me when I caught him straight in the nuts with the toe of my steel toe boot. The other one made a grab, but I ducked and connected with both the wrench and the mag light into his crotch.

I was looking around when I heard a beep from one of the scooters and looked up to see my boss.

“What’s going on here?”

“That bitch attacked us!” The first one said in a high pitched pained voice.

“One of these asshole’s wanted to play grab ass with me while I was looking in the engine bay, Ed.”

He instructed them to leave and then helped me finish the job. All it was, was a loose fitting on the hydraulic pump for the forks, and we had it fixed and back in action in no time.

“Maybe I should have put you in the cold mill today?”

“What good would that have done? Those asshole’s would have gotten hurt if they had taken another step. You forget Ed, I used to play soccer and rugby. I still know how to kick.”

He just smiled and we rode back to the shop and played cards for the rest of the shift, since there were no more calls for trucks needing fixing. I went into the locker room after my shift was done, and as I opened the door I got a standing ovation from the other ladies in there, none of whom I recognized.

“Well done, those bastard’s needed to be taught a lesson, and looks like you’re the right woman for the job.”

I just smiled as I changed back into my street clothes to head for home. I hopped on my bike and started to put my helmet on when I saw one of the guys from earlier driving right at me. I quickly gunned it and stomped it into gear, just before he would have hit me, with his big new truck. Since I was parked next to the guard shack, and he just couldn’t stop that fast, the truck buried itself cab deep into the new building. I started thinking to myself “Why do people keep trying to hit me when I’m on my bike?”

                       

The guard saw the whole thing and as the plant manager was pulling up he told the guard to tell the guy in the truck he was fired, and to call the cops and have him arrested. I smiled as I drove home and fell into a well deserved sleep after another heart pounder of a day.

Next time: Alumni Weekend.

 

  since 2/13/07