Prologue:

Gertrude Gormley was rushed to the hospital. She had fallen in her home and pressed that magic button that hung like a pendant around her neck. The ambulance came to take her away. The entire neighborhood was concerned for her. The ambulance driver asked the neighbors about Gertrude. They told them all they knew. But no one knew who was Gertrude's next of kin. Gertrude was an elderly woman certainly over seventy years old. She might even be over eighty or maybe even ninety but she never told anyone her true age. When asked, she would always say "A lady does not tell such things." She had been a fixture in the neighborhood for as long as any of the current residents could remember. She in fact lived in one of the oldest houses in her part of the town. The house be hold, but it was still in great shape since it had been kept up through the years.

Gertrude had been treating the children of the neighborhood homemade cookies, brownies and other assorted treats and the children loved her for it She had time for all her neighbors, not just the children and everyone knew that anything they told her would never be told to anyone else. Gertrude would only give her advice when it was asked for so she could be told anything and no one had to worry about getting a disapproving look or a lecture. She was just one of the good people in the world. Before she left, Mrs. Gormley insisted that someone take care of her cat, Whiskers. The paramedics hadn't seen a cat, but Mrs. Gormley insisted that they find her, she was most likely hiding in the main bedroom's closet, as the cat was fearful of strangers. Animal control came to take the cat to a safe place while Mrs. Gormley was in the hospital but they couldn't find her.

One of the ambulance attendants asked the assorted neighbors about Mrs. Gormley. They had to know things like age, height, weight and medical conditions. They told him Mrs. Gormley was a plump woman of about 175 pounds. They didn't know her exact age. They knew she had osteoporosis. No one was sure how tall she was exactly since she was always stooped over. She had many of the chronic ailments that comes with advanced age. She always wore gloves on her hands because of her arthritis. The gloves helped the pain as well as to hide her misshapen fingers or so Mrs. Gormley had told her neighbors. She had had skin cancer a while back and so on her doctor's advice she tried to keep out of the sun as much as possible. Thus she wore long dresses with long sleeves all the time. She also wore a hat with a veil to keep the sun out of her face. Most of the time the only part of her body you could see were her lips under her veil. If questioned not one neighbor could think of a time that they didn't see Mrs. Gormley without her hat and veil covering most of her face. Her lips were always painted in a bright red lipstick. It was easy to tell when a person had visited Gertrude by the remnants of her lipstick on their cheek the neighbors remarked. Everyone thought very highly of Mrs. Gormley and they all wished her well.

It was the talk of the neighborhood when Mrs. Gormley was taken away. Everyone hoped she would recover and return to her home. Mrs. Gormley was truly missed while she was away.

Dave Sullivan owned the house that Mrs. Gormley lived in. When Dave had bought the house, he was happy that it already had a tenant to pay part of the mortgage for him. He had bought it as an investment property during the financial crisis of a few years back. He bought the house for dirt cheap and he was going to wait several years for the housing market to recover and then make a killing when he resold it. But for now he was happy to have someone living in the house while he waited.

Dave wasn't a tall man, he was only five seven. He had shaved off the remaining hair from is balding head. He wasn't particularly fat, but he wasn't in great shape either. He had the beginning of male breasts but he didn't worry too much about them. His facial featured were full, especially his lips although his chin was a bit refined. He had sparse hair all over his body as most men have but not too much. He wasn't particularly muscular as a sedentary lifestyle had soften any muscles he had had in his youth.

When Mrs. Gormley died Dave was informed since she didn't have any living relatives so no one was around to pay the monthly rent. Dave went to Mrs. Gormley's house to inspect the place and see what must be done to rerent the place.. That was his excuse anyway. But what he really wanted to do was to see if there was any good stuff he could take from the old lady before anyone else got their hands on it. Maybe there would be money or expensive jewelry in the old woman's home.

Using his key, Dave entered Mrs. Gormley's house. Due to the devious nature of his visit, Dave tried to enter without anyone seeing him. When he got inside, he saw it as Mrs. Gormley had left it. The place was clean and nothing looked out of place. Dave began to look around. He decided it would be best to just get a general look and then make a more careful inspection later. He wanted to get a layout of the place first. When Dave entered the house he saw the main living area. There was a hallway to the left that led to the other rooms of the house. The first room was the kitchen on the right. Down the hall there were three other rooms and a bathroom. The first room on the left was obviously a guest bedroom for anyone who stayed over. Dave didn't know that anyone had actually used this room, but that seemed to be it's purpose. The next room was a room that could have been a den but seemed to be changed into a storage area. The final room was the master bedroom where Mrs. Gormley slept and kept most of her personal items.

Dave went straight for the living room. This is where Mrs. Gormley must have collapsed since there was some disorder there. It was clear by the fact that several items such as folding tables had been moved to random areas of the room that the EMS attendants were working here. One of the things that was clearly out of place was a silver colored wig that was haphazardly placed on the ottoman. Dave didn't know that Mrs. Gormley wore a wig. She had done so for some time after she realized that her thinning hair couldn't be hidden by styling it. Mrs. Gormley wasn't a vain woman but she thought that all women should have hair and so she purchased this wig and several others. Dave didn't know why he picked it up, but he did so and then placed the wig on his bald head. He looked at himself in the mirror that covered the wall opposite the large window in the room.

The wig was obviously made for an elderly woman. It was mostly gray with a hint of yellow. It had a permed appearance with rows of medium sized curls in an updo style. Dave took several seconds adjusting the wig until it fit his head perfectly. When Dave was done, he laughed at his appearance saying "I should have bought a toupee years ago." But after this private joke was over instead of removing the wig he kept it on his head and didn't give it another thought.

Dave started to look around for a few moments when he saw Mrs. Gormley's gloves. She had many pairs around the house, she wore them constantly to help her hands feel better and to hide her arthriticly deformed fingers. Dave decided that it would be a good idea to wear them so he didn't leave excessive fingerprints throughout the house. If he did find expensive jewelry for example, it wouldn't do for his fingerprints to be all over Mrs. Gormley's jewelry box if anyone complained.

With Mrs. Gormley's wig on Dave's head and her gloves on his hands, Dave started to look around the house The gloves came in handy when he wanted to move the furniture around. He wanted to look thoroughly. He knew that older women could hide money or valuables in some odd places. He didn't only look under all the cushions of the couch, but he also moved it away from the wall to look behind it.

After a while, Dave decided to take a break and see if there was a snack in the kitchen. Even before entering the kitchen, Dave had decided that he would have a nice cup of tea with a couple pieces of toast with some jam on it. Dave just had a craving for those items even though he hadn't drank tea in a long time and would only eat toast with a breakfast of eggs and bacon. Dave had no way of knowing that tea with jam and toast was a favorite snack of Mrs. Gormley. He filled a kettle with water and put it on the stove to heat. Then he put two pieces of toast in the toaster and pushed down the handle.

While he was waiting for his food to be ready, his cell phone rang.

"Hello?" Dave asked.

"Hey Dave, I was wondering what time you will be home?" the voice on the other side of the line said. Dave knew it was his wife Pan who was calling.

"I don't know. There's a lot to do."

"Should I make dinner?"

"I'll tell you what. Why not come over here at 5:00 and we'll get some dinner. No need for you to cook."

"It's a date."

"I'll see you then."

By the time Dave had gotten off the phone his food was ready. The water was boiling for his tea and his toast had long since popped from the toaster.

He returned to the living room with his snack to watch some television. When he turned it on one of Mrs. Gormley's afternoon soaps was on. Normally, Dave would change the channel, but the story interested him before he had a chance. Once set, he took a big gulp of his tea. Dave hadn't realized how long he was on the phone with Pam and so his tea was much hotter than he expected it. It burnt his tongue and his throat. Dave yelled out in pain in a high pitched shreak. It took Dave a few moments to recover. From then on, Dave took very small sips of his tea and small bites of his toast due to the pain in his throat.

Dave looked around the living room during the commercials of the soap he was watching. When the soap was over, he decided that he should clean up. The living room was a mess due to the activities of the paramedics that came when Mrs. Gormley needed them. Dave straighten up the papers and cleaned the left over trash. He returned the furniture to their proper places. Then he vacuumed the rug.

Looking at the walls, Dave discovered that Mrs. Gormley had the same taste in art as he had. Mrs. Gormley would swap the painting and wall plates around from time to time. Taking one plate or picture off its nail and replacing it with another. But Mrs. Gormley couldn't hammer in new nails to put the wall hangings in different places. Dave didn't have that problem and decided to put the paintings in new places. He reasoned that a fully furnished home with tastefully hung art would make the place easier to rent. So Dave did what Mrs. Gormley wanted to do but couldn't hammer in new nails. Dave found the new perfect spots and hammered in nails in the proper locations. Dave thought that it was interesting that Mrs. Gormley had collected plates from the places around the world that he had himself been to. There were plates from San Francisco, Chicago, London, Cairo and Venice that Dave remembered visiting although Dave had not actually been to several of those places. But if asked he could tell you the places he visited and the sites he saw there.

While hammering in the plates, he was a bit clumsy and hit his hand with the hammer. Sometimes he stuck his finger with the nails he was holding. By the time he was done, both his hands hurt. He reasoned that it was a good thing he was wearing gloves or they would have hurt worse. Regardless, Dave went into the bathroom to see if Mrs. Gormley had anything that would help his hurting hands. He found in Mrs. Gormley's medicine cabinet the arthritis pills that she took. Dave took one with a gulp of water. The pill hurt a bit as it went down his throat due to the accident with the hot tea from earlier. When Dave made a high pitched gasp due to the pain, Dave chalked up his not sounding like himself due to the same accident.

Dave saw the cat's litter box on floor. Dave had a moment of inspiration, "Where would be a better place to hid money than under the cat's litter box. Who looks there?" he thought. He pulled out the litter box from where it had been and discovered nothing under it. Dave thought it was a good idea nevertheless.

Dave was going to take a longer look throughout the bathroom, but he decided to finish cleaning up the living room first. He just couldn't stand that he hadn't taken his used plate and coffee cup back to the kitchen to be washed. He didn't want to remove his white gloves due to the pain so he put on rubber gloves over them (something Mrs. Gormley regularly did) to wash his cup and plate. He cleaned it thoroughly and then dried the dishes and carefully replaced them back on the shelf.

Since he was in the kitchen he decided to look through the refrigerator. Looking inside, he saw several items had reached their expiration date, such as the milk and juice and threw each out into the garbage after entering their contents down the sink. On the way to dumping the milk, Dave dropped the carton and a small amount had spilled onto the floor. Absentmindedly he took a piece of paper and wrote down what needed to be replaced on a shopping list. Between the gloves on his hands and his painful fingers his penmanship was a bit shaky or so he thought. If he had compared the list with the lists that Mrs. Gormley had written herself, he would find the penmanship indistinguishable. He left the list under a magnet that was on the refrigerator door.

Before leaving the kitchen, Dave took a sponge mop and cleaned up the milk off the floor. Not satisfied with just mopping up the milk, he proceeded to mop the whole kitchen floor. When he left the room it was spotless.

All of a sudden a n extreme urge to pee overcame Dave. As he rushed toward the bathroom he stubbed his toe on the cat's litter box. Dave had forgotten to return it to it's proper place when he looked under it before. He hobbled towards the toilet. His need to pee was so great he didn't have time to pull down his zipper and whip out his dick, so he pulled down his pants and underwear. He was going to pee standing up as he usually did, but his foot began to throb. He needed to get off his feet, he plopped down on the toilet and began to relieve himself. Even though his need seemed extreme, Dave in fact didn't pee all that much. After it was over, Dave developed a fear of getting a UTI and so he used a piece of toilet tissue and cleaned the tip of his penis. Finally finished Dave decided he would need a cane to help him walk on his injured foot. Dave didn't notice that he hadn't any trouble finding one without having to look for it.

With cane in hand to support him, Dave went into Mrs. Gormley's bedroom. The bedroom was very neat with the bed made and nothing out of place. Dave saw many pictures on top of the drawers. They all seemed familiar to him. There were also cute hummel nick-knacks intermixed between the pictures which he found adorable. Dave started on the first drawer he found. In it were tops and blouses in soft colors and prints. All of the shirts had long sleeves and high necks styles such as turtlenecks and crew necks and modest U-necks. They were designed to show off as little skin as possible both because Mrs. Gormley was afraid of the sun due to her bout with cancer and her ubiquitous feelings of being cold.

The second draw contained more tops of a similar style to the first. In the third drawer were long skirts. There weren't any pants of any type. Mrs. Gormley thought that it was easier to put on skirts than pants due to her arthritis.

Finally, the lowest drawer contained her lingerie. There were dozens of cotton full cut briefs. They all came in one of three colors: white, black and beige. There were just as many bras in similar colors. There were three slips and several girdles as well as over a dozen pairs of stockings in either nude or taupe colors. Dave didn't find any money in any of these drawers.

Dave then looked through Mrs. Gormley's closets. Inside them were mostly dresses. All the dresses were of a full length with long sleeves. There were also some formal tops and skirts hanging in the closet too. Dave looked around the room looking over and under everything. He admired Mrs. Gormley's taste in decorations and then left for the storage room.

Inside the storage room he found a bookcase with many cookbooks and other such books. Dave knew that older women left money between the pages of books. He picked up a cookbook at random and without him knowing, every recipe inside that book was placed into his head. It replaced some of the sports knowledge that he had accumulated throughout his life. He turned to the first recipe and found it familiar. He remembered cooking this dish many times. Looking at the second page, he knew this recipe well too. He then quickly scanned the rest of the pages without finding any money. He did the same with the next cookbook only to find that he knew all those recipes also. He found books on sewing (Mrs. Gormley liked to sew,but she hadn't done so since her arthritis had gotten bad.) He looked through other books on this and that and some novels that Mrs. Gormley kept on the shelf. He was amazed at how many of her books that he had actually read. All the while, his knowledge of sports, computers, cars and other assorted topics were being depleted along with his interest in such things, including his interest in sex.

Reaching up onto a top shelf a box fell on his back. He knew nothing was broken but it hurt an awful lot. Dave couldn't stand up straight due to the pain. Dave didn't want to call an ambulance so he decided to just go into the bathroom and take a hot shower. The water would soothe his aching back. Using his cane for support, he ambled towards the bathroom. He took off all his clothes when he got there, putting them instinctively into the hamper. Looking at the tub, he found that there was a shower chair he could sit in and the shower was attached to a hose so he could direct the water to where it was needed.

The warm water felt good on his back. Not to mention his foot which he had hurt earlier. He thought it might be easier to see the damage done to his back if there wasn't so much hair there, so he used Mrs. Gormley's depilatory to remove the hair from his back. He thought it would silly to have only one area of the hair removed from his body so he removed the rest of it. Soon the only hair on his body was the gray wig that he still wore.

Satisfied that most of the pain was gone, Dave left the shower and put a towel around himself from his chest to his thighs. He then instinctively went into Mrs. Gormley's bedroom to get some clothes. He picked out cotton briefs and a long-line bra. His man-boobs didn't fill in the cups of his bra so he supplemented the cups with a pair of stockings in each. He decided to support his back by putting on a girdle. He then put on a pair of taupe stockings before putting on a pretty floral top (with long sleeves of course) and a long pastel skirt. Worried that he might slip on the floor in his stocking feet, he found a pair of shoes in the closet. Mrs. Gormley only wore slip on shoes because they were the easiest to get on. Dave didn't mind that his feet extended passed the end of shoe somewhat. He then put on Mrs. Gormley's glasses and put in her hearing aide. These were things that Mrs. Gormley did everyday without thinking about them.

After dressing, Dave returned to the bathroom to look at himself. He wasn't in as much pain anymore, but he still stooped over. Seeing himself in the mirror. His vision was a little blurry and he reasoned he should go see an eye doctor to have his prescription checked. Regardless he couldn't stand himself without some lipstick. After putting it on, he smiled. Looking at his yellowing slightly crooked teeth he decided that he needed to see a dentist. He wanted to remove his old teeth and put in some pretty dentures.

Leaving the bathroom, Dave found the phone and called both the dentist and the optometrist. Conveniently they were both in the same medical office building. Dave spoke to the receptionist and set up appointments for himself on the same day. The receptionist knew who was calling due to the caller id and called Dave Mrs. Gormley by name but Dave hadn't noticed. Quickly the appointments were made. Dave's throat felt better but his voice was now high pitched as Mrs. Gormley's was and a bit shaky.

Dave returned to the storage room and found that the box that had fallen on him were full of photo albums. There were many photo albums in the box. He looked through them. Most of the pictures were taken from in or around the house he was in. At first he didn't recognize the people in the photos, except for Mrs. Gormley of course. In each of the pictures, she wore her usual attire. Hats with veils, long sleeved tops mostly with floral prints and skirts that always came down to her ankles. Throughout the years, Mrs. Gormley's appearance didn't change. Mostly all you could see of Mrs. Gormley under her clothes was her lipstick covered lips and a big smile of obviously false teeth.

With Mrs. Gormley were a variety of people of differing ages. Dave had never lived in this neighborhood so he shouldn't know any of the people in the pictures. But seeing each of them, he knew their names and something about them. Dave thought that he must have ran into them while he was in the neighborhood. He found he liked everyone he saw, even the 'nasty' children. He saw children and young parents grow up before his eyes in the pictures until the day they were adults and moved away to find new crops of children and their parents.

As he saw picture after picture his memories of his life changed to fit the pictures he was seeing. His old memories vanished without him realizing it. Dave loved making cookies and sharing his treats with the neighborhood was a great way to make more stuff without having to eat them all himself. He could use to lose a few pounds, but he wasn't obese. He didn't finish looking at every picture, but he would get to that later. The pictures in the album he was looking at went back twenty plus years, but there were albums that went back much longer than that and some which were more recent. There was something he needed to do, it nagged at him.

He walked with his cane stooped over to the kitchen. Seeing the shopping list on the refrigerator he knew he had to get milk, bread and other items from the store before it got too late. He put on his hat with his veil and headed towards the door. Dressed like Mrs. Gormley with almost his entire body covered by clothes and stooped over, no one would suspect that Dave wasn't Mrs. Gormley. He found his purse on the way to the door. He opened it up to make sure he had enough money for the things he needed. Looking through it, he saw his social security card and seeing the number he remembered it as his SS number. Each piece of identification became his. From then on as far as he knew, he had always been Mrs. Gertrude Gormley, who every one called simply Mrs. Gormley. He was a widowed woman living on a fixed income in this rented house.

Mrs. Gormley left her home to walk the two blocks to get what she needed. She wasn't going to carry the groceries back, the store had a person who would deliver what she selected. On the way, one of her neighbors saw her. Everyone knew her from miles away just by how she dressed and who else would wear long sleeves and a veil on such a warm day as today.

"Hello Mrs. Gormley," the kind woman said, "I didn't know you returned from the hospital."

"Yes Dearie," Mrs. Gormley said. Mrs. Gormley always used words of endearment when talking to anyone like sweetie, dearie, sweetheart, luv, etc. "I just got out quite recently."

"Are you feeling better?"

"Yes, much. It wasn't as big a thing as everyone thought. The doctor said I'll be fine for another forty years at least," Mrs. Gormley said with a broad smile of her painted lips.

"For your lips to god's ear."

"How nice of you to say. I am feeling great. I think I'll be here forever."

The two talked while for a while and then Mrs. Gormley was on her way. Several other neighbors seeing Mrs. Gormley stopped to chat, no one could tell that it was Dave. Rumors spread that Mrs. Gormley was back.

After shopping Mrs. Gormley returned home to watch her soaps. She had several days of episodes to get caught up upon. They were stored on her DVR. Mrs. Gormley couldn't set her DVR (it was set by the nice man from the cable company for her), but she could see all the programs that are automatically recorded. At approximately 5:00 there was a knock at the door. Mrs. Gormley said "Come in." At this time, Mrs. Gormley was wearing her normal clothes except she wasn't wearing her hat with the veil. Pan who was at the door saw her husband wearing Mrs. Gormley's clothes.

"Dave what are you wearing?" Pam exclaimed.

"Whiskers, where have you been?"

"Whiskers??? You told me to come over at 5:00. Why are you dressed like that?"

"You must be hungry."

"A little bit. But I'm not going out with you dressed like that."

"I'll get you something to eat."

"You are going to cook?"

Pam followed Mrs. Gormley into the kitchen. He was all stooped over and used a cane to walk there.

"Ha ha, very funny." Pam said. "Not stop meow, meow, meow." Pam thought she was talking normally, but all her words changed to meows. If there was an actual difference between one meow to the other as a different word was said, only Pam could tell.

Mrs. Gormley reach the cabinet and took out a can of cat food. On the floor there was a bowl full of water and an empty one. Mrs. Gormley spooned the cat food into the empty bowl. Pam knowing that Dave expected her to eat it started to 'talk' rapidly, but all that came out was a series of urgent meows.

"Whiskers, I know you must be hungry now eat up," Mrs. Gormley said. But Pam couldn't understand Dave anymore. She thought that he was speaking gibberish although she still recognized her name, 'Whiskers.'. She turned to call an ambulance, something must have happened to Dave. But before she could, she fell into her hands. From the ground she couldn't reach the phone. In a flash all of her knowledge and memories left her hear replaced by the instincts of a cat. Since her brain didn't have to concern itself with her former human knowledge it could concentrate on her senses. Pan's hearing and eyesight were enhanced. Her sense of taste and smell were improved and her balance coordination had improved to professional gymnast levels.

Whiskers leaped onto the counter where the phone was although she didn't know what she wanted there anymore.

"Oh, I see," Mrs. Gormley said in a soothing voice. "You got yourself all caught up on people's clothing. Let me get you untangled and then you'll eat." Whiskers responded to Mrs. Gormley's soft tones came towards her.. "Look what trouble you got yourself in," Mrs. Gormley said. "What a silly cat, wearing people's clothes." Mrs. Gormley then stripped Whiskers out of her clothing. Whiskers never wore any type of clothing again. "You are getting into too much trouble outside, I think from now on you will be strictly a house cat. No more adventures outside for you." Mrs. Gormley said.

Whiskers became a totally indoors cat never leaving the house again. She became intensely fearful of strangers and would scamper to hiding places when anyone stopped over. Mrs. Gormley was a fixture in the neighbor for the next forty plus years. Living alone in her house with her cat for as long as anyone could remember.

Epilogue

Once Mrs. Gormley left the house she lost consciousness. They had her on the gurney and rushed her to the emergency room. Since she was fully dressed but unresponsive they cut off her clothing. Once she was totally naked, they made the discovery that Mrs. Gormley wasn't a she at all. Underneath all her clothes was the body of a man.

"I thought you said, that this was a woman?" the nurse said. "Mrs. Gertrude Gormley."

"That is what the neighbors told us," the ambulance driver replied.

"Well, he is clearly not. He's just a crossdresser."

"I don't think anyone knew."

"Really?"

"No one said a word and they all kept referring to her...er him..as Mrs. Gormley."

Thinking about it for a while, "I think we have an ethical obligation not to tell anyone."

"Right," the ambulance driver said. He didn't want to be involved in such things anyway.

Meanwhile back at the house, in a closet a woman was hiding. She didn't know why she was hiding. She didn't know why she was naked. She tried to stand up but it was hard. There was a great pain in her back like she hadn't used the muscles there before. But she struggled to get to her feet the best she could. She didn't know why she was here and she thought she should get out of here as fast as possible. She got out of the clothes and realized there wasn't anyone home. She didn't want to steal clothing, but she couldn't go out naked and she knew she had to get away. She didn't know where she was. She would be surprised to find out that she was decades older than she remembered. Looking through the drawers she found a pair of panties, a top and a skirt. She put them on. She realized she needed some shoes and got a pair of them too. Then she left the house.

End.