Anxious as ever, Riley almost leaps off her clear acrylic chair. “How’d it go up there?” I sit down next to her, puzzled, “Good…I think. Would you believe my HMO is covering this?” She scoots her chair closer to whisper, “But w-what did you tell him? Did he say anything about you-know-what?” I still don’t know what that means but I don’t want her to start crying again…

“Mmmm…he was kind of rude and just asked why we’re here,” I say, marveling as I cross my legs for the first time without crushing the family jewels. “So I told him,’ I don’t know why I woke up as a woman and don’t know what’s going on.‘”

“And? Well, what did he say?”

“He just scoffed and said, ‘We get that a lot.‘”