December 2021 Christmas Holidays Story Contest Entry

“Oh come on Joe, it’ll be a lot of fun, and you will be a big help.”

“Look, if you five want to make fools of yourselves, that is fair enough, but why drag me into this Carrie?”

“Before you started with The Laurie Partnership you were an actor, singer and dancer, you know what you are talking about.”

In case you have forgotten, I am a failed actor, I never got any decent roles and it did not look like things were going to get any better, which is why I’m now working on the helpline at a finance house.”

“We would really appreciate your help with this and we would be ever so grateful, at least meet up with us for a chat and if you still don’t want to do it, that’s fair enough, but hear us out first.”

“Ok, Ok, but I’m not making any promises, I’ll see you all in The Blue Boar at 7:30, if nothing else it will be good to put faces to the voices.”

I was wondering how I had got talked into this and how I had got into the situation in the first place.

I had always desperately wanted to work in theatre since being forced to go to dancing classes at a very young age. I hated it at first but soon realised that I got excited by all the razzmatazz of performing, and in a way, even at young age, I enjoyed the attention of all the girls at the classes, and it was mainly girls, very few other boys ever came to the classes.

Whilst this gave a lot of benefits the downside was that for many our performances that I had to dress as a girl to blend in with the rest of the class for the group routines, which caused a lot of bother with the boys at school and a lot of name-calling. As I grew through my teens and went to college, because I had spent all that time with the girls in the classes, I was a lot more comfortable with females than most of my male friends and was never short of company and partners.

After four years at drama school, majoring in singing and dance but with a strong background in acting, I had visions of huge success in the professional theatre, primarily in musicals, but it was not to be. I soon discovered that the world of theatre was not the rosy life that I had been looking forward to, and that I needed a job in the real world to pay the bills and keep a roof over my head.

I drifted through several casual jobs, bar work, shop assistant, courier, delivery driver, but never stayed more than a few months at any of them, always hoping that I would be called for an audition for what I really wanted to do. I eventually realised that I was not going to become an overnight star and that I needed to look for something that could develop into a career, and ended up with a financial services company, The Laurie Partnership, on the bottom rung of the ladder to becoming a financial consultant.

At the interview they made it sound like an important role, but at the start it was not much more than working a helpline, answering client problems and describing the range of the services and products that the company could offer. At my level we were not allowed to offer advice of even arrange contracts for investments, we had to pass up the line to more senior and experienced people.

As our work was all by telephone or chatline we mainly worked from home and only got to meet others doing the same job at one or two updating seminars through the year and at the staff Christmas party. At one of the seminars I had met Carrie and got on well with her and we had met up a few times, but this was different. I had become a bit of a recluse and it would be good to get out with people again.so I decided to do as she had asked and turned up on time at The Blue Boar just to find her sitting alone.

“Hi Joe, we’re really glad you decided to come, the others will be along later but I wanted to put you in the picture first before they arrive.” she welcomed me with a hug and a peck on the cheek, like old friends.

“You were quite secretive on the phone, what exactly do you want from me?”

“As I told you, with four of the other girls on the helplines we want to perform a song and dance at the Christmas party, other sections in the company usually do a few little numbers, but with not being in the office we tend to get overlooked. This year i have arranged with Alison and Fiona, that you have met before, and Clara and Jennie who are reasonably new, that as there are five of us we will be miming to the Spice Girls version of Sleigh Ride. As you saw last year most of the other efforts are very knocked together and amateurish, we want to do it much slicker and professionally, which is why we need a sort of artistic director, you, to choreograph it for us and polish the performance.”

“And you really think I have the time and the ability to do this, do you?”

“Well if you can’t, the four years that you spent at drama school must have been a waste of time. you’ve told me about the shows you were in when you were younger and how well you did, all I am asking is that you pass a little bit of that experience on to us.”

“Let’s talk to the others, find out what they can do, and if I think there is any hope for you all I’ll give it a go.”

“That’s good timing, the others are just arriving. Hi Allie and Fi, you already know Joe, Clara and Jennie this is Joe who has just about agreed to help us, if you tell him what you would like he will play the gentleman and go to the bar to get some drinks in,”

It turned out that the girls were not complete novices, all said that when younger that they had been to dancing classes, either modern, ballroom, or ballet, and all but Clara had sang in choirs, either at school or church, and were all used to performing.

“Ok girls, I am happy to work with you and see what you can do. Let me listen to the song and watch the online videos of the Spice Girls doing their routine and I’ll see what can easily be adapted. Carrie said that you all want to take this seriously and give a polished performance, so give me a couple of days to work things out and then we’ll get together to run through it all. Meanwhile make sure to learn all the words and the musical rhythm of that version of Sleigh Ride, even though you are going to be miming you have to get the timing right.”

We stayed for a while, chatting and getting to know each other, and I was soon relaxed in their company and enjoying myself being out in a crowd again, working from home it was too easy to become a bit insular and withdrawn.

Three days later we all met in the village hall which I had booked as a rehearsal space, for an introduction and run through. The girls had decided between themselves as to which of the Spice girls characters that they would take on. Carrie, being a redhead was the obvious choice as Geri (Ginger), as was Clara for Mel B (Scary) due to her mixed race ancestry, Allie opted for Emma (Baby), Fi was picked as Victoria (Posh), and that left Jenny as Mel C (Sporty).”

"Ok girls to start with i want to hear you singing so I’ll just play the backing track and you sing along with it, at this stage don’t bother with the actions and dance moves, I just want to hear your voices. Start off all singing together then I’ll point to you when I want you to do a solo.

After a few runs through, i made my mind up about where this was to go.

“That was good for a first attempt, you have all got decent voices and have a natural sense of rhythm. I think that you should forget about miming and actually sing it yourselves. Some of your voices don’t match your characters, so we’ll mix and match it a little bit, nobody will know or care on the night, they will be too merry from the free bar.” If that is ok with you all, let’s run it again, just watch for when i point at you for you to take the lead.”

After the rehearsal we went off to the Blue Boar to wind down and talk through how they thought it had all gone. As I went to the bar for drinks, Ellie the landlady smiled at me . “You girls are becoming regulars, I’ll have to put a reserved label on that table for you, what can i get you? If you are all having wine, it will be cheaper if you buy a bottle, or two, rather than by the glass.”

I was a bit taken aback by being include in ‘you girls’ and managed to splutter ‘that’ll be fine’ before returning red-faced to the the girls. Ellie soon brought over the bottles and the glasses and with a cheery “There you are girls, enjoy your drinks.” went back to the bar, leaving the girls giggling and looking at me going even a deeper blush.

“You know what Joe, it was an easy mistake for her to make, you really do need a haircut and those skinny jeans and that chunky wooly jumper are not too much different to what we are wearing. don’t be worried by it, take it as a compliment that you blend in with us.” Carrie tried to calm my embarrassment.

“Sorry girls, you are right Carrie, but it just brought back some bad memories of my time at school. I was always considered a bit of a weirdo for going to dancing classes, and when all the other boys started sprouting up a bit and I didn’t really match them, they started to call me girly and changed the name on my locker from Joseph to Joanne. Even some of the girls joined in and kept asking if I wanted to borrow one of their skirts. After a while it all went away, they found somebody else to pick on, but a lot of the boys still avoided me and I tended to hang out with a group of the girls instead. It was not a happy time at all.”

“Never mind, you seem to have got over it, and just because you are hanging out with us does not make you girly.”

For the next rehearsal I asked the girls to wear something similar to the outfits they would be wearing for their performance, Carrie was in a red mini dress that she was going to convert to Ginger’s Union Jack dress, Allie was in a floaty flowery dress with her hair in bunches, Clara was in black legging and crop top, Fi was in a skirt suit and blouse, and Jenny was in leather leggings and skimpy bodice top, they all looked the part and now I just had to get them acting the parts too. To demonstrate the moves I wanted them to make and so they could clearly see what I was doing, I had decided to wear dancers leggings and vest.

After the session, which went very well, we got changed back into our street clothes. After years of dance classes I had no inhibitions about changing in front of the girls, but I decided just to keep wearing my leggings and flat pumps, just putting on a sweater over the my vest. In the pub afterwards Ellie brought us over some wine. “ Hi girls, you all look a bit flushed what have you been up to?”

“We’ve been rehearsing a dance routine for our office party, Joe here has been putting us through our paces and we are beginning to get our act together.”

“Good for you Jo, make sure that you get the other girls up to scratch, you don’t want them to embarrass themselves in front of their colleagues and bosses.”

Again the girls giggled at me being included with ‘the other girls”, but nobody made any comments this time.

All the exercise and the wine caught up with me and I stood up to make my way to the loo.

“Just a minute Jo, I’ll come with you.” Carrie said as she followed me and dragged me into the Ladies.

“What are you doing Carrie, I can’t come in here.”

“Just think on Jo, Ellie thinks you are a girl, you can’t just walk into the Gents, there is no one else in here, so just go in a cubicle and do your business, and make sure you sit, we don’t want to leave any nasty splashes around the rim of the bowl.”

As I came out from the stall Carrie was waiting for me and handed me a lipstick. “You are the only one of us without their lips done, Ellie will think it strange, and besides it will make you more believable. Do you know what to do or do I need to do it for you?”

I blushed as I replied “ This is getting beyond a Joke Carrie, are you all having a good laugh behind my back?”

“Not at all, we all like you and are grateful for what you are doing, let’s just treat it as a bit of a joke. Ellie thinks you are a girl, so unless you are going to go over and tell her that she has made a big mistake, which will embarrass you both, just go with the flow and relax. Are you going to put on the lipstick or not?”

“It’s ok, I had to wear lipstick for the performances I was in with the dance class, so I’ll manage myself, thank you.”

Back at the table, the girls all noticed but tried not to make it obvious. At the end of our nights in the pub the girls had got into the habit of goodnight hugs and cheek kisses, and for the first time included me, wearing lipstick and leggings they were obviously starting to look on me as another one of the girls, just like Ellie had done. It set me thinking.

In my lunch hour the following day I went into town and bought myself some bits and pieces.I Ihad decided that if they were all going to treat me as a girl, that I would play play them at their own game and go along with them.

Before going for the rehearsal, I washed and blow-dried my hair to give it a bit of body, put on the padded bra and pantie, added some enhancers into the bra, donned my leotard and dancers tights, put on a tunic top and skirt, applied a bit of light makeup on my face, along with mascara, eyeliner and lippy, and made my way to the village hall.

“ OMG Jo, what have you done, you are looking gorgeous.” Carrie gushed as the others just stared at me dumbstruck.”

“I just thought that if i was going to be mistaken for and treated as a girl, that I would have a bit of fun with you all, and maybe this will now stop all the comments about me being girly, now let’s get on with rehearsals. I’ve decided that we should do two spots, Sleigh Ride that you have got almost perfect with and later a jolly Christmas medley to get everyone having a singalong when they have all had a few drinks, so we have a lot more to learn.”

After rehearsals we went down to the pub again, with me still wearing my makeup and girl clothes, getting a comment from Ellie. “You are looking a lot nicer tonight now that the other girls have got you wearing makeup and more suitable clothes.”

Now that I had played the joke back on them Jo’s clothes and makeup were put back in the cupboard, and at the next rehearsal I walked in as Joe again, seeing a look of disappointment on some of their faces.

A few days before the party, we had some distressing news, Fi had been rushed into hospital with appendicitis and there was no way she would be out and fit in time for the performance.

“There is nothing else for it Jo, you will have to take her place.”

“I can’t, it was one thing going to rehearsals and the pub that night last week all dressed up as a joke, but it’s a different level altogether, spending all night at the party and performing.”

“You trained as an actor, think of it as playing a part.” Allie tried to convince me, “You looked quite good when you were dressed up, and you know all the dance moves. Fi, as Posh, doesn’t have major solo singing spots anyway, just in the general chorus, You must be able to take her place, see it as a challenge to your training and talent.”

“Ok, Ok you win, I’ll give it a go. To get into character I will spend the rest of the week in girl-mode, but on Saturday i will need the help of one of you with my hair and makeup if I am to be convincing.”

For the rest of the week, both when I was working and at rehearsals, I wore female clothing and makeup, styled my hair and generally presented myself as a woman, even going out to the shops and for a walk in the local park ,and by the day of the party, I was fully into the role.

“We’ve got lots to do to get you ready for tonight, and I’ve got myself to sort out too, so I have brought all my stuff here with me.” Allie bustled me when she called round to get me fit to go to the party.. Have you already had a shower and shave and made sure all your body hair has gone?”

“Yes, boss, all done as instructed, I’m ready for you to work your magic.”

“The girls have sorted out your clothes for tonight. There’s a party dress to wear when we arrive and have our meal, then there is your ‘Posh’ costume of skirt and blouse. What you don’t know is that we have hired costumes for the singalong, girl Santa outfits, short red dress with white fur trim, and matching hat. Before I make a start on making you presentable you had better try them on.”

“The Party dress fits quite well and it suits you. It’s an old one of mine, but you can have it if you want.”

“Thank you, but I don’t think I will have a use for it after today.” I replied but just got a doubting stare from Allie. The Posh outfit from Fi was ok and would do, but would never win any fashion awards.

“ I can’t wear this.” I shrieked as I came out wearing the Santa outfit, it’s far too short and the top leaves nothing to the imagination, not that I have anything to show up there anyway.”

“We’re ahead of you on that, I have another surprise for you, take the dress off again.” She quickly opened up a box and pulled out two artificial breasts. “Jenny’s mother had breast cancer and got these as replacements after her mastectomy which kept her looking normal until she unfortunately passed away. Let’s get these fixed on you and we’ll have another look to see if the dress fits better.”

I hadn’t realised that ‘get these fixed on you’ meant a special glue which would keep them firmly in place until the matching solvent was applied, but they definitely looked the part “ Ok, now put your bra back on, you will begin to realise why we girls usually use them although we all moan about how they pinch, without a bra your girls will have a life of their own, they feel a lot better with a bit of support.”

The dress covered just enough so that they looked and moved quite realistically, and the extra shape really made the dress sit better.

For the next hour she brushed and used straighteners on my hair, trimmed my eyebrows to give a better shape which would still be acceptable as Joe, added false lashes which took some getting used to, and applied full glam evening makeup.

“Ok, just pack up your costumes and sit there while I work on myself, but don’t put your dress on yet, we don’t want to get it all creased.”

Later we set off for the party venue and met the others in the foyer, the compliments were flying around, particularly in my direction.

“ OMG you don’t half scrub up well Jo.”

“ You’re wasted as a boy, I think we might have created a new you.”

“ I’m jealous, that dress looks better on you than it ever did on Allie.”

We found our table and were joined by three extremely smart and attractive young men from the trading room who entertained us all through our meal, but after a few routines from other acts, which were good fun but very amateurish, we went to get changed for our spot. The girls seemed to ignore the fact that I was really Joe , not Jo, and had no reservations about stripping and changing with me in the room, they were treating me as just another girl.

Carrie looked amazing, she had managed to make a replica of Geri's Union Jack dress, Allie looked really cute with her hair up in bunches as Baby and a flouncy little-girl dress, Clara looked the part of Scary in a tight leopard-skin dress and killer heels, Jenny, as Sporty was dressed to kill in skin-tight leather trousers and cut-off bodice with fake tattoos on her arms, to be honest I felt a bit underdressed as plainly dressed moody Posh.

We set our backing track blaring and pranced onto the stage belting out the opening lines

Just hear those sleigh bells jing-a-ling-ring-ting-a-ling-a-ling-ting
Ring-a-ling-a-ling-a-ding-dong-ding
Come on it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you

We continued to run through it all, with a lot of the audience joining in with the chorus, prancing, pouting and strutting around in our dance routines as we sang, and after a second run-though finished off to loud claps, whistles and roars of approval.

Ring-a-ling-a-ling-a-ding-dong-ding
Outside the snow is falling and friends are calling you
Ring-a-ling-a-ling-a-ding-dong-ding
Come on it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you

Full of adrenaline from the performance we rushed back to our changing room to calm down, had a long group hug and started to get changed for our second spot as Santa girls. “That was brilliant girls, you really did me proud, it was worth spending all that time working on the routine.”

“We couldn’t have done it without you Jo, you’re wasted on the helpline you really should get back to your real love, the theatre.” Carrie gave me a kiss and hug.

“Hey, careful Carrie, you are squashing my boobs, I’m just getting used to them, we don’t want to damage them do we?” which caused the others to go into fits of hysterics.

Our second spot was a medley of all the favourite sing-along Christmas songs, Winter Wonderland, Frosty The Snowman, Rudolph The Red-nosed Reindeer, Rocking Around The Christmas Tree, Here It Is Merry Christmas, I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day, and of course White Christmas, finishing off with a chorus of Jingle Bells.

After that we collected our stuff and went back to our table, still in the Santa outfits, we had decided that they were ideal for the dancing and partying afterwards. The guys on the table welcomed us back with congratulatory hugs and kisses, me included, and I almost forgot who I was, and just became one of the girls for the night, dancing with them and with the guys.

As the party was winding down we were approached by a distinguished looking gentleman and I noticed that the guys on the table suddenly quietened down.

“Hello girls, let me introduce myself, I’m Sir Duncan Laurie, in case you don’t realise it’s my company you all work for. In all the years we have been giving these parties that was the most amazing performance I have seen, so professional and the crowd loved it and you really got the party going.”

“ It’s all down to Jo, she had proper theatrical training and really polished it all off for us, it’s her you should be thanking.” Carrie replied pointing at me, It escaped my notice that she had referred to me as ‘she’ and ‘her’.

“ Ok Jo, as you seem to be in charge, I wonder if you could do me a favour. My wife, Emily, is a major patron of the local children’s hospice. Every year the staff put on a show for the poor kids, most of whom are terminally ill, we try to make what could be their last Christmas a happy one. Can I prevail upon you to repeat your performance for them, I would really appreciate it. You can say no if you have other commitments, I will not hold it against you, but It would be really good if you can manage it next Friday afternoon. I know it will be Christmas Eve and you probably have other plans, but it would so gladden their little lives.”

“ How can we refuse a plea like that, I’m up for it, what about you girls, can you manage it too.?” Clara was travelling to see her folks that day, but the rest all agreed as long as I would go party with them all afterwards.

When Allie had fixed the breast forms on me, she had only given me a small amount of the glue solvent left at the bottom of the bottle, and I decided not to waste it as I would need it after the Christmas Eve performance, and so for the rest of the week I stayed fully in girl mode, after all I couldn’t really go out as Joe with 36B boobs. I had to go to the shops again, i needed a few changes of clothes, even as Joe I couldn’t wear the same stuff for days on end, and got a few tops and a couple of skirts.

Now I was dressed as Jo, I found that I adopted her character and when answering the business calls it became natural for me to adopt a passable female voice and it became second-nature to me.

Although Allie had given me the blue dress I had worn for the party, i felt the need to get something different for Christmas Eve and went to the stores to see what I could get. After trying on lots of dresses in several shops I finally went home with a fitted, mid-thigh cherry red satin number with matching 4” peep-toed heels and clutch bag. I was really pleased with what I had found and was looking forward to the reaction from the girls,

Christmas Eve, I tried to remember what Allie had done to my hair and makeup, and although not quite up to her standard, I thought that I made a reasonable job and actually looked quite attractive. We had decided to arrive at the hospice in our Santa outfits and even though they had all been at the party with me, they were astonished at my appearance when I arrived and took off my coat.

“ Wow girl, you have definitely come over to the fair side, I can’t really remember what you looked like as Joe, when we go out partying later you are so going to have a lot of fun.”, Jenny was the first to react.

Fi had recovered enough to join us to replace Clara and the five of us, dressed in our Santa outfits, sung our medley, with a few additions, to the boys and girls , trying hard not to burst out crying at how ill some of them were. Sir Duncan was right, most of them would never see another Christmas, it was heartbreaking, but they were all enjoying themselves as if they didn’t have a care in the world. We spent some time with the kids afterwards chatting to them one-to-one and singing their favourite song, but it was soon time for us to wrench ourselves away and to try to get into party mood after some of the sorrowful sights that we had just been through.

We all arranged to meet up later and I went back to Carrie’s to put on my party gear, and glam up my makeup.

“Wow jo, you look gorgeous, that dress really suits you, you have great taste, where did you get it?” Carrie asked when I came out after changing into my party gear.

"I was all over town and couldn't make my mind, I really could have done with someone with me for a second opinion. but I then saw this in that little boutique just of the Square and knew that it was the one for me."

"Next time you want to go shopping, give me a shout, it's a lot more fun with somebody else to help.

When we met up with the others their reaction was similar and I joined them in commenting on how we were all looking. We were all dressed to party and were expecting a fun night.

The night started off quietly with a light Italian pasta meal in a local Trattoria, then we went around several of the local bars where there was usually a bit of life, all of us getting hit on by groups of lads out on the town, before ending upon a nightclub to party and see in Christmas.

It was super fun out with the girls and after a few drinks their dancing got more and more animated and lively and I went along with them. Disco dancing had never really been my thing but I was quite supple from my dance training and my arms body hips and breasts were all soon swinging around as much as anybody’s.

At the countdown to midnight we all had a group hug kissing and wishing each other ‘Merry Christmas’ until we were broken up by a crowd of lads who had made a beeline for us and we were soon on a kissing and hugging merry-go-round with them. I was carried away with the emotion of the day and night and let myself go in passionate embraces as much as the other girls, until Carrie dragged me away and took me to the Ladies to fix my hair and makeup before leaving for home.

“Well that was a different Christmas Eve for you Jo, what are you doing tomorrow.”

“I’ll just be on my own, My family live at the other end of the country, and to be honest it is usually a pretty staid affair with them and it’s not worth the hassle of travelling.”

“That’s no good, I can’t let you do that, I am going round to my Mum and Dad’s. why not come with me, I’ve been telling them all about our Christmas show and the concert at the hospice and they would love to meet you, although they only know you as Jo,, a girl friend so you will need to stay in character for another day.”

“Thanks, I would love that, but I will have to go home to freshen up and get changed, so I will meet you there.”

“Spoken like a true girl ! if you get there early we can help Mum in the Kitchen, my dad and brother never bother, they are happy to get waited on and plied with drinks by their womenfolk.”

Wearing my blue dress that Allie had given me, with a more modest makeup look than the party image I had the night before, I arrived to be greeted almost as one of the family but soon gravitated to the kitchen with Carrie and her Mum and helped to prepare the meal.

I had a wonderful day, the dinner was delicious, and the company was fun, even though the men still expected us women to fetch and carry for them, and clear up the mess afterwards, but with a lot of “you must come and visit again”, particularly from Carrie’s Mum, I made my way back to my flat.

The office and the helplines were closed for the week until after New Year so I decided to just relax as Joe and come to terms with what I had been doing for the last few weeks, but my lazy time was interrupted by a call the day after Boxing Day.”

“Hello Jo, it’s Duncan Laurie, I hope you enjoyed your Christmas.” my mind raced trying to place him, then I suddenly realised who it was.

“Oh hello Sir Duncan, you caught me by surprise. I had a wonderful time actually, the concert at the hospice was an eye-opener, those kids are amazing and some brought tears to my eyes, but they made me even more determined to enjoy my life as much as possible, and I spent Christmas Eve and Day with good friends.”

“Me too, which is why I have called. One of our Christmas dinner Guests was Katherine Scott, who is the artistic director for the Theatre Royal in town. I was telling her about your performances and she is interested in meeting you to talk about theatre work. If you are interested I will give you her number and you can get in touch. Don’t worry if it affects your work commitments with the company, I can sort any problems out for you.”

I arranged to go to see her, got myself back into Jo mode, re-fixing my breast forms and putting on in a peasant top and flared skirt and made my way to the theatre to meet her. I was expecting to see a middle-aged over-the-top theatrical arty stereotype but was pleasantly surprised to see a bubbly thirty-something casually dressed in jeans and a “Santa motifed” casual top, who greeted me warmly and we chatted for a few minutes about how Christmas had gone, before she turned into business mode.

“Duncan has told me all about the show you put together for the office party and for the kids in the hospice, and how impressed he was with your performances Tell me about what you have done and where you trained, I think that I may have an opening for somebody with your talent.”

I decided not to waste her time so taking a deep breath to compose myself I decided to be completely truthful. “Before we start Katherine, it’s only fair that you should know that I am really male, ‘Joe with an E’ not Jo, I have only been presenting like this since I started organising the routine for the girls’ performance. When one of the group had to drop out, i was the only choice to stand in.”

“Please just call me Kathy, and don’t worry about that, after years in the theatre I think I have seen every shade on the rainbow spectrum, and to be honest, this role suits you, you’re a natural. As I asked, please tell me about your background.”

It was easy to chat with Kathy and she was genuinely interested in what I was telling her.

“Three things to clear up. We are running a pantomime at the moment and I would like you and your friends to do a prelude to the show getting people in a happy mood with your Christmas medleys. Secondly, I am looking for an assistant director, which as well as helping with the productions will open up opportunities to get you back on the stage. Thirdly, you look and act amazing, everyone has been singing your praises, you really should consider continuing as you are, as I said before, it suits you.”

“Thank you so much Kathy. I’ll need to ask the other girls about doing the show, but I’ll be delighted to join your team, even it it means wearing dresses and skirts, working in the theatre has always been my dream”

“As you can from me see it will be mainly jeans or leggings and jumpers rather than skirts, but I know what you mean.”

I could hardly wait to call the girls to tell them the good news and they were all delighted for me and were looking forward to doing the shows,

I had been a challenging and exciting few weeks since that first meeting with Carrie and the girls. I had found a new job that was what I had yearned to do, I had a group of friends that I expected to keep for life, I was happy and settled. A sleigh ride with my friends certainly took me on a journey I wasn’t expecting.

The end