Chapter 4 - A Rose by Any Other Name

By the time I had laid down to sleep that night, I had decided a few things.

I absolutely, positively, was going to publish my results. It really wasn’t even a question of doing it or not. It had to be done. Breakthroughs like this had to be shared.

But, at the same time, I didn’t want my name attached to this breakthrough. Well, my former name. I had transitioned. Bradley Alex Wheeler was, for all intents and purposes, dead now.

The reasoning behind not wanting my former name attached were many. First, in the back of my mind, I felt that I had only solved half the equation. True, men wanting to become women would now have an avenue to pursue, but I hadn’t a clue of how to make things go in the opposite direction.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, I didn’t want to go the rest of this new life being known as “the girl who used to be a guy”.

No thank you. A clean break is what was needed, thank you very much.

Now, that isn’t to say I didn’t want to keep my money. I just had to figure out a way to move it from the Wheeler column to the ... hmmm ... I suppose I would need a name now, wouldn’t I?

I would have to sleep on this. Perhaps a name would come to me in the morning.

It was with this thought in mind that I retired for the night, figuring that if this was day one, what would day two bring me?

The evening wasn’t without it’s hiccups, of course. The sensation of my breasts spreading out as I lay on my back was one thing, or feeling them hang to the side when I rolled over in my sleep was another.

But the star moment of the night, undoubtedly, was when I got up in the middle of the night, raised the toilet seat, and pissed all over the floor.

I guess internalizing my new gender wasn’t going to be something I learned overnight, and with it the realization that my urinating standing up days were over.

So, after a quick mop up of the mess and a fresh shower to clean myself up, I went back to bed and slept through the night.

Waking in the morning I did a quick body check, just to make sure I hadn’t had a very vivid dream. Nope ... penis gone, breasts in place. I was still female.

I decided the first order of the day had to be a name. It was the basis of everything else that needed to follow, and the bedrock upon which I must build.

Mary and I had never discussed other children’s names, after her hysterectomy. What would have been the point? “Yes, let’s pick out names for all the children we will never have now!”

After giving myself a long, hard look in the mirror, I settled upon “Dawn” for my first name. It seemed fitting, as this was the dawning of a new life.

For my last name I chose my grandmother’s maiden name of Maddox.

That just left a middle name. In the end, I consulted a random name generator website. I told it I wanted a feminine and not too common name of Welsh decent. It spat out an entire list, and I was drawn to Enfys, which was supposed to mean rainbow.

I am Dawn Enfys Maddox.

Now that I had a name, I began my work of creating a life for myself. I photo-shopped a birth certificate, created school transcripts, and the start of a social media presence. I even wormed my way into the Social Security database and gave myself a social security number.

Using this information, I applied online for a checking and savings account, then began siphoning money from my Wheeler accounts and into my new account.

Money would not be a problem for the time being.

But, I realized with a groan I would have to go back to high school and get a driver’s license all over again.

But that was a problem for another day. Today, I needed to clothe myself. Checking my closet and drawers, I found a pair of sweat pants I could roll the waist band over a couple of times to fit me, as well as a t-shirt that I didn’t think looked too bad.

But, when checking the mirror, I decided that perhaps a thin white t-shirt wasn’t the best choice after all. For the moment, I was forced to go bra-less, and the t-shirt was advertising a bit too much. I instead chose a navy t-shirt which, thankfully, obfuscated my condition.

Taking my keys off the peg and praying that I didn’t run across any law enforcement, I got into my Prius (hey! No snide comments!) and, after adjusting the seat and mirrors for my smaller size, hit the drive through ATM. I withdrew the daily limit of $1,000 from my Wheeler account.