A Gifted Child               by: Donna Spencer

 

It was a perfect day for gardening. Mid-April weather on the San Francisco peninsula was unpredictable at times but Mother Nature had delivered a bright sunny day. A gentle breeze whispered in the branches of the apple and cherry trees in Grace’s backyard and songbirds reveled in the warmth of a new spring day. Grace herself was working on the patio, in the shade, planting Tea Roses in small wooden casks.

Piano music drifted out of the house as her twelve-year-old son, Donnie, practiced his lessons. Chopin’s Prelude in D-flat seemed the perfect enhancement to the songbird revelry. Donnie was already good enough to accompany the choir at church and had started on the organ just a few months before. His teacher was trying to talk Grace into enrolling him at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Grace stood up to stretch and take a lemonade break with Donnie when she heard the music stop. As she stood up she noticed some movement through the window of her bedroom. Grace watched intently as Donnie entered her room, looked furtively around, before beginning to rummage through her drawers. He then went into her walk-in closet, closing the door behind him. He was apparently unaware of her watching him through the window. Grace puzzled over the behavior of her son wondering what he could be up to. Her answer arrived a few minutes later when Donnie walked out of the closet wearing one of her skirts, a blouse, pantyhose and her pumps. Donnie admired himself in the full-length mirror on the closet door before hurrying from the room carrying the bundle of clothes he had been wearing when he came in. Grace was stunned at seeing her son put on her clothes and her first instinct was to go confront him. She headed for the door but stopped. He was just playing dress-up. What could the harm in that be? She decided to let it go and forget about it.

Grace had her lemonade alone, not wanting to bother Donnie while he had his fun. She was musing about what to do about the situation and was surprised to observe in herself a total lack of disapproval. It seemed innocuous enough after all. She was somehow fascinated by the look of her son adorned in feminine garb. Her thoughts drifted onto the question of whether he had done this before. It hadn’t taken him long to put on the clothes and he seemed to know what to go after in her closet. She decided that he probably had been into her things before.

Grace wasn’t the most fastidious housekeeper and her closet was no exception. She probably just never noticed if anything had ever been moved before. Grace went into her room and opened the drawer with her panties and pantyhose. She usually just stuffed her clean undergarments into the drawer without folding. That morning though she had just put some of her favorite panties in the drawer and they had been right on top. They were now missing. So Donnie had her panties on, too. She smiled at the idea of it.

Donnie was a slight child with fair skin and he did have rather long brown silky hair so that he had almost looked like a girl when he was in the skirt. If the clothes hadn’t been oversized on him he would have looked quite attractive.

On her way back out to the garden she decided to look in on Donnie and just see what would happen. She called out to him and heard him scampering in his room. She peeked open the door and he was standing behind his bed with most of his body out of view. He was blushing as red as a tomato. She asked him if he was ready for lunch or a snack and he turned her down. She looked down at his feet and saw the toe of her pump sticking out and just smiled and told him she was going back out to the yard to finish her gardening. She was wondering why he chose a day when she was there to try her clothes on. He was home alone almost every afternoon after school. Was he trying to get caught? Did he want her to confront him?

Grace resumed her yard work and shortly after heard the piano start up again as Donnie returned to his study.

After her gardening was done Grace went into the house to get a refreshing shower before starting on dinner. After her shower she noticed that the skirt and blouse that Donnie had been wearing were already back in her closet. She breathed a silent sigh of relief and smiled at the sight of her son wearing her clothes. As she went to get some underwear though, she noticed that the panties weren’t there. It didn’t seem that the pantyhose had been put back either. Maybe he was going to wash them before returning them.

Grace fixed herself an afternoon snack and put a chicken in the oven to roast. She picked up her book and went out to the yard to read. She looked in on Donnie at the piano to ask him if he wanted anything and he said he would get something in a little while. Grace saw that he was wearing cutoffs, but it looked like he still had the pantyhose on. She wasn’t sure what to say about it so said nothing. She noticed that they didn’t fit him too well since the legs were about 4 inches too long and he had them tucked back in his sandals.

Donnie was quiet for the rest of the day. He had stopped his practice shortly after she had talked to him. He came out to the yard a bit later and the pantyhose were off.

After dinner they watched TV together and Donnie fell asleep with his head in her lap. She helped him into bed. After she was sure he was asleep she went back into his room and found the pantyhose and panties in his laundry basket under his other clothes. She took the laundry basket and went out and washed all of his clothes. She folded the clothes and put them back in the basket with the panties on top. She hung the pantyhose over the curtain rod in his bathroom before going to bed herself.

 

A Curious Boy

 

Today was the day. Donnie had been trying on his mother’s clothes for 4 months and he wanted to tell her how much he liked girls’ clothes. He would do it today. He had started during Christmas vacation while she was at work and he was out of school. He had been having a growing curiosity about how it would feel to wear girls’ clothes and decided to try on some of his mother’s things while she was at work. It had been an eye opening experience for him as he found that he really liked the feel of a skirt swinging around his legs. The feeling was magnified when he put on his mother’s pantyhose. He had kept it a secret that he was wearing her clothes, but he wanted her to know and today was the day he would tell her.

He knew she was planning on working in the garden today because she had bought a lot of gardening supplies the night before. He planned to wait until she was busy in the garden and then go into her room, change into one of her dresses or skirts and then go out into the backyard so she could see him wearing her clothes.

At breakfast he confirmed with his mother that she would be working in the yard and then asking her if he could spend the morning on his piano studies. She agreed to that and they both went about on their different paths.

Donnie was very nervous as he showered before starting his practice session. He practiced every day at least two hours and many days he spent 4 or 5 hours and many Saturdays and Sundays he spent a good 8 hours at the piano. He was very good. He had played a recital in front of the entire school just before Christmas break with works by Chopin, Beethoven, Bach-Busoni and Mozart. His teacher was urging him to enroll in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as both a piano student and a composition student. He loved to create his own music.

His mother had played in high school but quit when she became pregnant with him. She had to go to work at that time to support them both. She had done well in the mortgage business and was now a very successful consultant. It required a great deal of her time and Donnie had gotten used to practicing for long hours while he waited for her to come home. They had lived with his Grandma until just a couple of years ago. His grandma was his usual sitter and she had a piano for him to practice. Grace had bought a house in the Millbrae Meadows when Donnie was ten. It was right around the corner from Grandma so he would spend many afternoons there waiting for his mom to come home.

Today, though, he was having a hard time concentrating as he ripped through his scales and patterns. He decided after a good half hour of warming up to play something soft and soothing hoping it would calm his own nerves. He started in on the Chopin Prelude in D flat. He just wasn’t satisfied with the way it was sounding and was becoming frustrated.

It was time. Now was the time. His mother was engrossed in her gardening. She wouldn’t see him sneak into her room and while he dressed in her clothes. He stopped playing and went directly to her room and went in. He went into her underwear drawer and got a pair of panties and a pair of pantyhose out. He went into the walk-in closet and took off his own clothes and put on the underwear. He pulled a skirt off of a hanger and slipped it on and then picked out a matching blouse. They were too big, but he loved the way they looked and felt on him. He wanted his mom to know how good this made him feel. He slid his feet into her too big pumps and gathered up his own clothes and made a dash for his own room.

His heart was pounding as he tried to get up the courage to go out in the backyard and let his mom see him wearing her clothes. His hand rested on the doorknob of his bedroom door as he decided it was time to go out there. He had just started to turn the doorknob when he heard his mom called out to see where he was.

He panicked. He threw his own clothes off his bed and into the closet and looked for somewhere to hide. There was nowhere to go! He stood behind the headboard of his bed as his mother opened the door. She just smiled and asked him if he wanted lunch or a snack. He murmured that he wasn’t hungry and she just smiled and told him to help himself since she was going back out to the garden.

He was mortified. What was he thinking going and letting his mother seeing him wear her clothes? This was a stupid idea. He took off her clothes and started to change back into his own clothes. As he started to put on his own underwear he thought that maybe he could just leave the underwear on. She wouldn’t see that. He put her panties back on and then decided to wear the pantyhose, too. She could see him wearing pantyhose. He put the pantyhose back on, folding the excess nylon under his foot as he put his sandals back on. He put on the cut-off shorts he had on earlier and his T-shirt and went back to practice the piano after putting back the skirt and blouse.

He became engrossed in his lessons and didn’t even notice when his mom came in from the yard. She startled him when she asked if he wanted anything for a snack and then realized he still had the pantyhose on. He turned down the snack even though he was starving. He went to his room and took off the pantyhose and put them in his laundry basket under his other clothes. He would put them back in her drawer later.

Donnie went out to the yard to help his mom finish up and then they had a nice chicken dinner and watched a little TV before he fell asleep in her lap. She helped him into his bed and he was asleep almost before she kissed him goodnight. The last words he heard before sleep was her telling him she loved him so much.

Donnie awoke the next morning and as he reached for his robe he noticed that his mother had done his laundry after he had gone to bed. Right on top of the basket were the panties he had taken the day before. They had been washed and given back to him. The pantyhose were gone though. Could it be that she didn’t mind if he wore the panties but didn’t want him wearing pantyhose? He just didn’t know.

He went into the bathroom and saw that the pantyhose were hanging over the shower rod. They were still slightly damp so he left them there after taking his shower. He got dressed for church and after church the pantyhose were dry so he took them into his room and put them in his drawer with the panties.

His mother never said a word about the incident and after a couple of days he was back to putting on his mother’s clothes after school. He started experimenting with her makeup too after seeing an article in one of her magazines about how to apply it. It looked pretty awful the first time, but after a couple of weeks and trying to put it on several times he was getting pretty good at it.

The only other indication he had that his mother knew anything was when he put a run in his pantyhose. It had actually been there for a while and he didn’t have the nerve to take another pair. But one day after school he thought that the pantyhose looked a little different when he pulled them out of his drawer. Sure enough, there was no run in the pantyhose. His mother had replaced them. She knew. She had to. Maybe she just didn’t care if he wore girls’ clothes. He had to tell her. It wasn’t right that they didn’t talk about this. They talked about everything else.

Donnie was too ashamed to tell her, though. He just couldn’t do it. If she really liked him doing this she would talk to him. Maybe she didn’t like him wearing her clothes and just gave him the pantyhose because it made him happy. He just didn’t know.

 

A Mother’s Concern

 

Two months passed and neither Grace nor Donnie ever brought up the subject of the panties and pantyhose. Grace never saw Donnie wearing them again though she would check his drawers sometimes and could see that they had been moved. She knew that he was wearing them but it must be while she was still at work and he was home from school. Grace noticed one day that there was a run in the pair she had let him keep so she replaced them with a pair from her drawer and disposed of the old ones with the run.

She also started to notice that her dresses would be hung up a little bit differently in her closet. They might be facing the opposite way or on the other side of the closet from where they usually were. She noticed her makeup would be moved around, too. Was he trying that, too?

Grace figured that Donnie would say something to her when he was ready. He seemed to be leaving little clues to her. Did he want her to say something to him? Did he want her to bring it up? These questions would plague her when she caught a little clue.

But Grace was getting a little worried about all this. It didn’t seem right that there was something that they didn’t talk about. They talked about everything else. It just wasn’t right. But again, Grace didn’t know how to broach the subject. How could she have let this get so far without saying anything? She didn’t mind that he liked her clothes and remembered how cute she thought he was wearing her skirt even though it was so oversized. She imagined that the dresses must have looked like tents on him. She almost laughed out loud with the thought of the oversized dresses hanging off of him.

Grace knew that Donnie had been wearing the clothes almost every day after school and she suspected that he might be wearing them all day now that school was out for the summer. It was time to do something. But what should she do?

Grace decided that she would come home from work at lunchtime the next day and catch him wearing a dress again. Then they would talk about it. She wouldn’t be mad at him, but she needed to talk to him about all this.

The next day Grace pulled up in front of the house and heard Donnie practicing away at the piano. He wouldn’t know she was there. She went around to the side of the house where she could look in and see him at the piano. She didn’t want to scare him and he was so engrossed in his piano study.

Sure enough he was wearing one of her dresses and it was way too big for him. Grace watched him for a while enjoying how well he played. He stopped practice and got up to go out to the kitchen. Grace crept down to the other window so she could see into the kitchen. Donnie had no idea she was out there. He swirled the skirt of the dress around his legs and smiled. Grace had never seen him so happy before. He was such a serious child and rarely smiled just for the sake of smiling.

The dress looked ridiculous on him but Grace realized it was only because it was so big on him. If it fit right it would look good. Right then Grace knew what she was going to do for him. His birthday was only a week away and even though she had already gotten him some presents she knew now what she wanted to give him that would make him really happy.

 

School is out!

 

Time seemed to fly by and the end of the school year was approaching rapidly. Donnie was excited by the chance to wear dresses all day long through the summer. His mother would be at work and his Grandma almost never came by without notice. He would go over to Grandma’s house sometimes since it was right around the corner. They talked on the phone sometimes too.

It had been 3 or 4 weeks since his mother had given him the new pantyhose and they now had a few runs in them, but Donnie still didn’t have the nerve to take another pair. He had to tell her how much he wanted to wear girls’ clothes. Maybe then he could get pantyhose that fit and get new ones when they got runs in them.

But every time he thought he could tell her he would start to feel guilty and strange about his desire to wear girls’ clothes. He just couldn’t bring the subject up. He was just too scared.

Soon school was over and summer vacation began. Right from day one of summer vacation Donnie would slip into his pantyhose and one of his mother’s dresses as soon as she left for work. He would then spend the entire day in the dress until it was almost time for his mom to come home. At first he was nervous but after a couple of hours he settled down and was able to concentrate on his piano studies.

Donnie finished the score for his variations on Happy Birthday and got up to get a cool drink from the kitchen. He thought he heard something outside, but it was probably just a cat or something. Donnie swished the skirt around and smiled at how wonderful it felt to have a dress on. Every time he put a dress on it felt so natural to him. Almost like coming home after being away for a while.

Donnie wondered how he was ever going to tell his mother about this, but he was going to have to do something. He couldn’t stand that they didn’t talk about it because they talked about everything else. He had even told his mother how much he liked his friend Karen, not just as a friend, but as someone very special. His mother had understood and told him to invite Karen to his birthday party on Friday.

Just then Donnie heard a car door shut out in front of their house and an engine roar to life. It sounded just like mom’s car he thought. He ran over to the kitchen window but couldn’t see any cars. He almost ran outside to see who it was, but remembered he had a dress on and he couldn’t go out front wearing a dress. By the time he got to the front bedroom and could see down the street, the car was gone.

 

A Gift for Her Son

 

Donnie’s thirteenth birthday party was a small affair. The only attendees were Grace, Donnie’s Aunt Robin, his cousin Christie, his Grandma and two of Donnie’s friends Karen and Billy. Donnie was mostly a loner and didn’t spend a lot of time with other kids. Karen and Billy lived on the same street and they walked to school with Donnie almost every day. Karen and Billy were in the school orchestra and loved to hear Donnie play the piano. They would come over many times with their own instruments, Karen on the violin and Billy on the clarinet and play together with Donnie. Donnie’s teacher had arranged a few trios for the kids to play. Donnie had little trouble playing most published trios, but Karen and Billy weren’t nearly as advanced. Today they played Donnie’s arrangement of Happy Birthday to the delight of Grace, Robin and Christie.

Soon the party was over and Karen and Billy left for home. Robin and Christie were staying overnight. They were going to dinner and the movies later on as part of Donnie’s birthday.

After they got home from the movies Robin and Christie went to bed in the tiny guesthouse in the back yard. Grace went into Donnie’s room while he was in the bathroom and left a shopping bag for him with a note that this was a special present for him that she thought he might enjoy.

Donnie found the bag on his bed and the note from his mother. He wondered what it was that was so special that she hadn’t given it to him at the party. Donnie opened up the bag and saw there was one big box inside. Donnie pulled the box out of the bag and tore the wrapping paper off the box. It was from Nordstrom. Donnie wasn’t too thrilled about more clothes but tried to keep a pleasant demeanor. He pulled the ribbon off the box and lifted the lid off. Donnie folded back the tissue paper and saw what he thought at first must be a flowered shirt. He picked it up out of the box and was astounded to see that it was a dress. He looked at it quizzically and then looked back in the box. There was two pairs of pantyhose, four pairs of extra-small satin panties from Victoria’s Secret, a pair of maryjane style shoes and a small plastic bag from MAC. Donnie opened the small plastic bag and found foundation, face powder, blush, two eye shadows, eyeliner, a lip pencil and two lipsticks.

Donnie looked over his new things. He was stunned. It was obvious that his mother had found out about him trying on her clothes. She had given him his own dress to wear.

Donnie went out to find his mother, but she was already in her bedroom with the door shut. Donnie wasn’t sure what to do with this surprise gift. He certainly thought the dress was pretty but his mom hadn’t told him anything about it. Should he try it on? Was she going to ask him about it? Was he just supposed to enjoy it by himself? After all she had never said anything to him about wearing her dresses, though it was obvious that she knew he did. Maybe she just didn’t want to see him wearing a dress, but didn’t care if he did it by himself. But, he really wanted his mom to see him in dresses. He loved that she had bought him his own dress; that felt so good to him.

Donnie decided to wait until the morning to try on the clothes. His mom had already gone to bed and he was tired, too. He hung the dress in the closet and admired it hanging there for a few minutes. He put the shoes on the floor of his closet and put the panties and pantyhose in his underwear drawer. Donnie put on his pajamas, went to bed and was asleep in just a few minutes.

A bright stream of sunshine through Donnie’s window wakened him with the promise of a warm early summer day. Donnie’s thoughts immediately went to the dress hanging in his closet. His mother had given him the dress surreptitiously for his birthday the night before. His mother had never said anything to him about wearing her clothes and now she had given him a dress without ever saying a word to him. He wasn’t sure what to do or if his mom even wanted to see him in a dress. His thoughts were that his mother would be disgusted to see him in a dress.

All this ran through his mind as he lay in bed. His need to relieve himself soon broke his troubled reverie and he jumped out of bed and hurried to the bathroom. He could smell the coffee his mother had made so he knew she was up. At that moment in time he decided it was time he wore a dress in front of his mother. He couldn’t stand the tension anymore. He would dress up in the new clothes as best he could and just walk out in front of her.

Donnie started by brushing out his long brown hair and then pulling it back from his face in a ponytail. He took off his clothes and slipped in to the panties and pantyhose. He put on his bathrobe and sat down at his bureau and laid out the makeup. He carefully applied it the way he had read in his mother’s magazines.

The dress was yellow chiffon with pink and blue flowers on it. The dress had satin lining in it so he didn’t need a slip. He slipped into the maryjanes and looked in the mirror at the young girl who had appeared in his room.

At the sight of her he quaked with fear of what his mother would think of him looking like this. He was almost ready to take everything off, but despite his great trepidation he suddenly felt a new resolve surge through him and out through the door he went to face his mother.

Donnie’s heart pounded as he walked through the kitchen towards the back porch where his mother took her morning coffee on nice days. Donnie walked out the door and was mortified to see his Aunt Robin and cousin Christie sitting at the patio table. He had completely forgotten that they had stayed overnight! He started to turn and head back into the house when his mother greeted him and told him how sweet he looked this morning and then asked him to come sit down with them. His Aunt Robin was beaming from ear to ear and his cousin Christie was all smiles as well.

Donnie sat down at the table next to his cousin who leaned over and whispered in his ear how cute she thought he was as a girl, but that he needed a little practice with the makeup and that she would help him if he wanted.

Aunt Robin and his mother went back to their conversation and soon Donnie and Christie were talking as though nothing different was happening. Donnie munched on a bagel with cream cheese and strawberry jam and sipped hot cocoa while enjoying wearing a dress as though it was the most natural thing in the world.

 

 

 

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© 2001 by Donna Spencer. All Rights Reserved. These documents (including, without limitation, all articles, text, images, logos, compilation design) may printed for personal use only. No portion of these documents may be stored electronically, distributed electronically, or otherwise made available without express written consent of the copyright holder.