Cut-04

I left Melody to sort out our food for the evening and went up on deck to phone my friend and business associate, Jonathan Fields. He ran the gallery where I was due to be having my show at the end of April/early May.
The cold wind of earlier in the day had died down and the sky was clear. It was going to be a cold and decidedly frosty night.

"Hello, Jonathan," I said when he answered my call.

“Yeah. I’m good.”

“I need to make some space in Roxy. I have twenty-six finished canvasses ready for collection.”

“Yeah, I know that it is a good while before my next show. I’ve got someone living on board with me for a while so I need the room.”

“I was sort of hoping for first thing tomorrow. I’m moored at Brentford Basin waiting for the tide in the morning. With you living in Richmond, it isn’t that far out of your way when you go into the office.”

“How does eight sound? Low tide is just after nine and I’d like to use the incoming tide to help me get to Teddington before high water.”

“I did say early. We have a lock slot booked for five to nine. If you get here for eight then we’ll be ready to hit the river on time.”

"Thanks, Jonathan. See you tomorrow."

I hung up the phone with a small smile on my face.

I looked up at yet another plane heading into Heathrow. I could see the lights of six more queued up behind this one. We might not get a lot of quality sleep tonight. I longed for the quiet of the country. I’d spent three and a bit months in London. That was more than enough for the time being. I could stay away until it was time for my fourth show at the gallery.

All that dreaming had to be put to the back of my mind when I smelt something cooking in the cabin below.

---

With Melody watching the pot of Pasta as if it was the last food on the planet, I slipped into my bedroom and fished out a bottle of wine from the locker underneath my bed.

As I stood up, I paused for a second. Melody was under legal drinking age. Then I relaxed. A glass or two of wine was ok in my book.

Over dinner, we chatted about a lot of things but nothing really about our own life stories. Melody was still very reticent to reveal much. At the end of dinner, I said,

“How about you talk things through with my lawyer when we meet him in Reading? He can go over all the options you have for not only sorting out your life but your transition.”

“But, he’s your lawyer.”

I smiled and reached over to a dresser that was on the side of the boat. I opened a small drawer and pulled out a two-pound coin.

“Here take this. Give it to Evan and then he’s your lawyer.”

“I can’t pay his bills.”

“True but I can. He’ll tell you how it works. You can give him instructions and he won’t tell me unless you want him to. Evan is a good guy. We were at school together. We won the school sailing regatta two years running. I trust him. He isn’t some money-grabbing shyster of a scumbag lawyer. Plus, he handles a lot of LGBT clients. He can take his fee for any work he does for you from my account. You need some help to get on your feet and I’m willing to help you get it. Is that so wrong?”

Melody didn’t reply for a bit so I gathered up the dirty plates and started to wash them up.

She took the hint and found a tea towel began wiping the newly cleaned dishes. As we came to the end, she said quietly.

“How can I ever repay you?”

I turned to her and smiled.

“You don’t. If I can’t help someone in need especially if that someone is Trans like me then the world is a really, really bad place. I’m doing it because I see a lot of me in you. I was like a little boy lost when I first went prospecting. I grew up very quickly when I nearly stood on a ‘King Brown’ snake. They are possibly the most venomous snake in the world. It was only a shout from one of my partners that stopped me from taking that fatal step.”

“Did you kill it?”

“Nah. Stan, one of my partners captured it and gave it its’ freedom just outside our lease. It was then that I saw the possibility of gold in the next-door lease. Thanks to that near encounter with a snake, I’m here today with money in the bank and able to help you sort your life out.”

“What happens after Reading?”

I chuckled.

“If I was in your shoes, I’d get Evan to engage a Private Eye to do some enquiries in your home town. You need to know if the Police are indeed looking for you and if not, why not. Once you know that, Evan will know what steps are open to you until you are eighteen.”

“That might mean going back home?”

“I doubt that very much. Because you have come out as Trans and your family are not supportive the last thing the courts would want to do is send you back to a place of danger. Far too many LGBT people of your age take their life because their families can’t or won’t help them for that to happen to you.”

Melody didn’t look happy.

"Heck, I'd even volunteer to be your ward of the court until you are eighteen."

“You would do that for me?”

"Yes, I would. My father shipped me off to Australia like some eighteenth-century convict in the hope of making a man of me. I nearly didn't come back but I did and I'm a lot stronger for it. Perhaps this trip with me will allow you to decide what you want to do with your life."

“But why are you doing this? What do you want in return? I can’t pay anything you know that.”

"I'm not asking for anything in return other than your company while we travel north and then for my visit to my Father at Easter. After that? Who knows. If you are still with me at the beginning of May then we can come down to London for my show. That will be an education for you in its own right."

“But I don’t have anything to offer?”

I chuckled. Melody looked a bit concerned.

“Think of being here as a safe place to learn to be the woman you want to. Experiment with clothes, makeup, hair and even your voice.”

“My voice? What’s wrong with it?”

I mentally switched to my softer and more gentle voice.

“Softer and more gently and if you can manage it a little higher in pitch and tone.”

“Oh! I see.”

“All part of leaving your male self behind.”

“What about you?”

I laughed.

“As I said before, I won’t be able to hide these little beauties much longer,” I said looking down at my chest.
"I'm going to use the showdown with my father to end my male existence. After that, it is Lauren Savannah Hall all the way."

“It is a lot to think about.”

“Let’s see what happens after you have seen Evan. A second opinion and all that. Don’t make any decisions until then. Just enjoy the ride and the locks.”

That night, I wondered if I’d done the right thing in laying things out like that. I fell asleep wondering if Melody would still be aboard in the morning. That was a pattern that would be uppermost in my mind almost every night from then on.

---

Jonathan turned up with his van just before eight the next morning. After a warming cuppa, the three of us loaded my finished canvasses into the van. Thankfully, it was fitted out for carrying paintings. Each canvas was wrapped in some old sheeting and slotted into a rack in the van.

“They look pretty good,” commented Jonathan as the last one was loaded.

“I’m quite pleased with them myself. The Kennet and Avon Canal is a very lovely waterway and the landscape close by is truly magnificent especially between Hungerford and Devizes. I intend to go back again but in early spring rather than high summer.”

“How many have you left to complete? You know, for the show?"

“I think I said four canvasses. I’ll have them done a week before Easter at the earliest.”

“That’s good. I’ve already sent out the first feelers to prospective buyers. One called me back the next day to say that he’d like a private preview. You know what that means?”

“He’s interested in buying at least one canvas?”

“That’s the impression I got from his call.”

"Do you know him from a previous business?"

“No. He’s a new buyer.”

“How did you get his contact details?”

“He’d already signed up after your last show for notification of any other of your works that come up for sale.”

“Ok. We can talk about this closer to the date. I have more important things to worry about at the moment. Roxy has a water leak and I need to get her to the boatyard near Oxford for repairs.”

“That’s a long way to go?”

“And every boat owner and their dogs want their craft all shipshape and on the water before Easter. I have a slot and if I don’t make it, I go to the bottom of the queue.”

“Ah! Gotcha. Good luck. I’ll put these into our secure storage until the second week of April. The new can go into detail about what goes where in the gallery.”

“That sounds like a plan.”

Jonathan left us alone just before 08:30. That gave us plenty of time to get Roxy ready to go through the lock and onto the river.

---

[Eight days later – Reading]

“Ready?”

Melody was fiddling with her hair. She'd come a long way in the past week. Her makeup was far less OTT and she looked pretty good. Her hair was as good as it gets until she had it professionally cut. The hours we'd spent in the evenings experimenting with her makeup was starting to bear fruit.

“Just about.”

“Better put your coat on. It has just started to rain.”

"Again? Does it ever stop? Every day since we came onto the river it has rained."

I laughed.
“It does stop sometimes.”

Melody appeared in the cockpit. She’d put on her coat as well as the woolly hat that she’d bought in a few days earlier in Maidenhead.

“Lets’ go then. We are due at the Solicitors in twenty-five minutes and their offices are on the other side of the town centre. Do you have that money I gave you?”

She smiled.
“In my pocket.”

I locked the doors to the cabin and followed her onto the towpath.

---

After our introductions, I left Melody with Evan and went into the nearby shopping centre. I didn’t want very much other than some paints from an Art Suppliers that was almost next to the shops.

I emerged half an hour later with all the paint and other things I needed. I now had more than enough to complete the remaining canvasses for my spring exhibition in London. I headed for a shop that makes really good pies and bought a couple. They would be good to eat later. With all my errands done, I headed back to the Solicitors Office to see how Melody and Evan had gotten on.

They were waiting for me.

“We have just about concluded our business for today,” said Evan.

“That’s good to know. Any glitches?”

Evan shook his head.
"As Melody will be eighteen in a couple of months there is little chance of her being made to return home but it would be nice to know what efforts her parents made in finding her. My guess, is that they made very little effort but it is always good to know,” said Evan.

“Evan said that other people like me were much more able to get on with their lives once they knew what their family were or were not doing to find them. Once I turn eighteen, I can with Evan’s help write them a formal letter of… of disassociation. That cuts the cord,” said Melody.

I smiled. Evan had done a good job.

“That is a big step forward but rather final isn’t it?”

“They didn’t like me wanting to be Melody. It is as Evan explained more about doing something to assert who I am.”

I could see a change in her whole posture already. She was beginning to throw off the many months of being downtrodden and abused on the streets.

“Melody, can you head off to the market and get some fresh veggies while I do a bit of business with Evan?”

I opened my wallet and gave Melody two £5 notes.

“Sure thing. I’ll see you back at Roxy later.”

“I should be done here in about half an hour.”

Once Melody had left, I sat down with Evan.
“I have your deed poll already filled out,” he said.

“That’s good.”

He smiled at me.

“I can see that you are changing. Those hormones have certainly kicked in haven’t they?”

I grinned back.
“They have. My Father is going to have a hissy fit in a couple of months. But that is how it has to be. This is when I get to tell him that there is no way in hell that I’m ever going to become like him, a complete and utter bastard who does not know the meaning of ‘sorry’. Then I can walk away with my head held high. I don’t need him to succeed.”\

Evan didn’t say anything for a bit.

“Do you want me there to back you up? Moral support and all that?”

“If you don’t mind? It would be great if you be there. That might just make him think for a second before acting.”

“Just let me know where and when and I’ll be there.”

“Thanks. Now lets’ get on with step one, change my name.”

Evan pushed over the document. I read it and felt my pulse increasing.

Everything seemed in order so I signed it. Now my name was formally, Lauren Savannah Hall.

Evan smiled as he stood up.
“I just need to get this witnessed and you are all set. I have all your other documents ready to sign once this is all good and legal.”

Evan disappeared into the main part of the office to get two signatures. He soon returned with the signed document.

I signed the forms changing the ownership of Roxy to the new me. Then my application for a new passport, driving license and letters to the Inland Revenue, my banks and insurance companies and a few other forms and I was done.

Evan gave me a few copies of my ‘deed poll’ as I stood up to leave.

He came around his desk and gave me a big hug. This was a hug between lifelong friends. Evan was the first person in the world I’d ever confided in about my desire to become a woman.
“Lauren, It is about time too if you want my opinion…”

"Thanks, Evan. Take my bill and that of Melody’s from my client account. Do whatever it takes to find out about her family but quietly. The last thing she needs is for them to come looking for her.”

"Message clear and understood. Take care, Lauren. I'll get an update to you by the time you get to the boatyard."

“I hope to be staying at the house in Islip. Dr Fredericks is away in the US on a Sabbatical until Easter. I’ll contact his assistant when we get closer to Oxford.”

Evan smiled.

“I know it well. I had many tutorials there in my time at Oxford.”
Evan thought for a moment.
“But how do you know the good Doctor?”

It was my time to smile.
“His grandson was one of my partners when I was prospecting in Australia. He asked me to look up his Grandfather when I returned home. I did just that but it turned out that we’d already met. He bought a Savannah Hall’ original when I had my first show in Oxford. I painted a picture of a Thameside scene from Pangbourne. It turned out that it was the house where he was born.”

“Sometimes Lauren, you have all the luck.”

“Bollocks and you know it. You seem to have forgotten doing a jibe without warning and it was either be hit by the boom or go overboard. The water in the North Sea is frigging cold in January in case you have forgotten after all these years.”

Evan went a bit red in the face.
“Ok, ok.”

I laughed.
“See you soon. Easter should be quite fiery.”

---

[ten days later at the boatyard near Oxford]

“Roxy looks very different from here,” said Melody.

Roxy had just been lifted from the water and was on a mobile frame by the side of the dock.

"She does look like a duck out of the water but looking at the algal growth on the hull, it isn’t a moment too soon.”

“How long before she’s back in the water?”

“The manager said two weeks minimum but my guestimate for the work is closer to five. Look at all the other work that they have on at the moment.”

“That’s a lot of time for a small water leak?”

“It is a lot but I’m having a huge amount of other work done. The work wasn’t confirmed until I spoke with the Manager before the lift. They have almost everything I need ready to go. The one missing part I can do without for the time being.”

“What sort of thing?”

I smiled.

“We can speak about that later. Evan will be here soon. He’s got an update to your case and he’ll give us a lift to where we are staying.”

“How long have you known about him coming?”

“We arranged that when we were in Reading. He texted me about the update to your case earlier. You were packing your things while I was talking to the hoist operator.”

I could tell that Melody didn’t believe me.

“Here, look at the text yourself,” I said as I opened my phone and gave it to her.

Melody saw the text from Evan.
"Ok, but why didn't he tell me himself?"

I chuckled.
"Who was it who refused to let me get her a cheap second-hand phone when we were in Reading?"

“Ok, ok. It was me.”

“Then we’ll get you one while we are here.”

"Who am I going to call? You? Evan? There isn't anyone else."

“At the moment, at the moment.”

I could tell that Melody wasn’t convinced so I let it ride for now.

---

Evan turned up a little while later.

"I'm glad that I came in my Wife’s car. We'd have never got this lot into my little car," he said surveying the pile of bags, easel, canvasses and other arty stuff that we'd removed from Roxy.

“I did warn you,” I said smiling.

“You did but you aren’t going on a long trip you know?”

“The work on Roxy is probably going to take a lot longer than I’d planned so we came prepared.”
Then I added,
“Did you get the shopping I asked for?”

Evan laughed.
“I didn’t but Marguerite did. She did it in under twenty minutes whereas, first thing this morning, I'd probably be there now if she left me alone to do it. I push the trolley and nod my head when needed."

“Typical men,” I remarked.

“Now, now, ladies, there is no need to get catty about it!” Said Evan with a huge grin on his face.
“Lets’ get this lot loaded before it comes onto rain.”

Once we’d unloaded the car at our temporary home and put things away, we sat down with a cup of tea and some lunch.

“Melody, I expect that you are chomping at the bit to know what my investigations have revealed?”

“I am but it sounds like bad news?”

“Yes and no. Your parents told everyone that they were moving to Portugal and that you’d gone there in August to be ready for the start of the school year.”

“That’s news to me,” said Melody.

“They sold up and moved away in late October, early November. The new owners of your childhood home don’t have a forwarding address for them neither do their solicitor who handled the sale of the house. The bank account that received the money from the sale is no longer in use."

“Sounds like it was them that legged it?” said Melody.

“That’s pretty close to the truth. However, my investigator went to where your father used to work and tracked him down via his pension.”

Melody laughed.
“Dad was always going on about saving as much as possible into your pension…”

Evan smiled.
"Your father turned fifty-five in June if I am correct?"

“Yeah. We went to Cromer for the day. Frigging cold.”

“He withdrew all the money from his pension in early December. It was transferred to a bank in South Africa.”

"South Africa eh? That sounds about right. His brother went out there long before he and mum were married. That was also before Mandela came to be President. You’ll probably find them in Durban,” said Melody.

“The good news is that they aren’t looking for you and didn’t look for you so you are free and clear. As of 2nd May, you will be legally an adult and can steer your own course in life.”

“I can’t wait. Thanks for doing that investigation,” said Melody.
Then she turned to me.
“Thanks, Lauren for doing this and paying for it. Somehow and someday, I’ll repay you.”

“No, you won’t Melody. You needed to know.”

Melody turned to Evan.
"You said 'Yes and no'. What is the bad news?"

Evan put on his bad news face.
“You were left some money by your grandmother Claire. Do you remember this?”

Melody shook her head.
“Money was something that wasn’t ever discussed in front of me.”

“As I said, she left you some money. It was at the time of her death some five thousand pounds.”

“Wow! I hardly remember her. She was Dad’s mum.”

“The bad news is that the money is gone. Your parents emptied the account which after interest was worth almost seven thousand a week after you supposedly left for Portugal.”

“Bastards,” exclaimed Melody.

“What I can’t understand was is there some connection to Portugal that I don’t know about?”

Melody laughed.
“We had a timeshare in the Algarve. We went every year for at least a month. I can speak pretty fluent Portuguese.”

Evan smiled.
"That explains a lot and why there was nothing suspicious about them claiming that you'd gone to Portugal for school."

“That seems like it to me.”

“Melody, it strikes me that they knew about your desire to be Melody and that the whole thing was planned well in advance,” I said.

Melody thought for a good ten seconds.

“I think you are right. Looking back there were some signs but I never picked up on them.”

I took her hand.
“Don’t worry about that. You are here now and amongst friends.”

Melody looked at me and began to cry.

I wrapped an arm around her. It was clear that she was going to need some comforting at least in the short term.
[to be continued]