They stood up and brushed the bits of damp twigs and moss off of the seat of their jeans. They lifted the forest green backpack to their left shoulder, then wriggled their right arm into the other strap. There were no papery traces of these events. Only unreliable neuronal traces. This was way before the days of the selfie stick. Way before the days of the ubiquitous cell phone camera. Way before the possibility of becoming the person whose soul lived inside their body. Way, way, way before the days of hormone blocking therapy. In fact, even for them, it was hard to think back to that scene without naming self as he.
Mom probably thought that the solo trip would reinforce the manly aspects of Marco’s personality. Were that true, mom’s idea failed. Miserably. That was the weekend when Marco became March. Not Marsha. March. From then on, only March would do.
From the Mid-Michigan Word Gatherers Prompt: Papery Traces 14APR22
Several members of the group said they liked this piece. Many of them are newer members who don’t recall my early flash fiction and who don’t care for the Knomo Choicius stories. :>(
They challenged me to write the novel. I offer this to anyone who wants to keep going with it. Acknowledge this link, please.
But maybe I will keep going a little bit. Here’s the beginning of the next chapter…
A good and worthy start
Why focus on gender of jesus, Budda, M ?
The lessons, wisdom, compassion of action is the value isnt it?
The point is that if Jesus was androgynous, “they” would have had more and richer experiences, from both male and female points of view.
Moses and the Buddha were guys, but the fat bellied Buddha is said by some to be representative of a feminine (pregnant) goddess. So some Buddhists obviously felt the need for an androgynous spiritual symbol.
How does backpacking enable gender preferance?
You KNOW I love this piece! Thank you for sharing, and yes, I am sharing it on my pages, too.
THANK YOU!!