Andrea walks into the family home and sees her dog waiting for her.

"Oscar!", she cries.

The dog comes bounding over, eager to see her.

A woman comes in.

"Who are you, and what the hell are you doing here?" She cried.

"Hi mum", the girl says. "It’s me, Andy; your son."

Her mother Jill just stands there with her mouth open…

“Oh, it’s Andrea, now, by the way”, Andrea continued. “I don’t really feel like an Andy anymore.”

Jill comes closer, inspecting Andrea from all angles.

“I don’t know what scam you are trying to pull”, she said, “but my son would never agree to be a woman.”

“What about if he didn’t have a choice?”, Andy said. “This wasn’t my idea at all. Something to do with a family debt?”

Jill went white as a sheet, then crumpled onto the sofa. Andrea raced over to help, but she brushed her off.

“It’s ok”, she said, “you’ve just brought back some unpleasant memories. I thought the debt was written off when your father died. Obviously, I was wrong.”

“They had me working as a maid for a year”, said Andrea. “Trouble was, one of the job requirements was for the person being employed to be a woman.”

“Before I could say anything, they sedated me. I woke up like this two weeks later, in a maid’s uniform. The training was ‘on the job’. I wore a collar which shocked me if I got anything wrong and had to work from 6am to 10pm every day from then until about a month ago.”

“At that point, they just unlocked the collar and let me know my services were no longer required. By that time, I was so used to being a woman that I didn’t even bother to ask them to change me back. I was just happy to be able to leave.”

“Anyway, here I am. You’ve got a daughter, now.”

Andrea had all the paperwork to show her as a woman; she was a perfectly healthy one. The sex-change had been carried out so professionally that there were no scars at all. It was while she was sitting with Jill, after she had accepted that Andrea was Andy, that Andrea’s sister Mary walked in from work…

“Who’s this, mum?” she asked. Then she looked closer. “Andy…?”

“Andrea, now”, said Andy. She then gave Mary an abbreviated version of what she had told Jill.

“Sally’s going to be surprised…”, said Mary. Sally was Andy’s girlfriend; after losing touch, she had assumed that Andy had ghosted her, for some reason. Hurt, she had got on with her life. Trouble was, she had found out since that she fancied girls instead and was really getting on well with Mary.

“I’m meeting her here”, said Mary. “We were going out for the evening. Boy, is that going to be awkward now…!”

“Why should it be?”, said Andrea. “She doesn’t have to know. As far as she’s concerned, I dumped her. I’d rather stay out of her life than hurt her feelings again.”

“Trouble is, she still really cares about you”, Mary said. “We’re just friends, not lovers. She’s actually said her ideal lover would be ‘Andy as a girl’.”

“Ok, if you’re sure, let’s give that to her”, said Andrea.

“I can’t wait to see the look on her face!”, said Mary, with a giggle.

Jill just made herself busy in the kitchen when Sally turned up.

She hugged Mary, then saw Andrea…

With a squeal, she shot over and threw her arms around her, nearly knocking her over.

“You’re not supposed to recognise me”, said Andrea, with a laugh.

“I’d recognise that cheeky grin anywhere”, Sally said. “Well, looks like I’ve died and gone to heaven. They’ve done a lovely job with your transition. What made you do it…?”

“It wasn’t exactly my choice”, Andrea said. “That reminds me. I’m going to have to swear all three of you to secrecy about what actually happened to me. If anyone asks, tell them it was a life choice of mine. If it get’s out that I’ve been talking about the ‘agency’ that did this, they won’t be pleased…”

All three agreed to never mention it again, and Andrea snuggled down on the sofa with Sally for a minute, to ‘catch up’ as she put it.

Mary was willing to let the two go out for dinner without her, but Andrea and Sally wouldn’t hear of it. She was family…!

Chuckling and laughing together, the three headed out. Jill was just happy that the family was back together…