Chapter 1

I stood watching as the plane taking my family to Crescent City made it safely off the ground. I don’t think any of them other than my niece actually know what I am anymore. She has been the keeper of my secrets for the last six years. But even she doesn’t know the whole story of how I became what I am. This is that story.

I was born on the US Army base in Wildflecken, Germany, Dad was in the Army stationed there. My Mom was in pain, drugged, and tired from twelve hours of labor, when the nurse asked her for my name, Mom swears to this day she told the nurse Johana but for some reason the nurse heard and wrote down Johnathan. I personally think Mom was so out of it she mumbled and the German nurse didn’t understand her and wrote down what she heard, so I got named Johnathan Susan Smith.

I spent the first ten years of my life moving from Army base to Army base around the world. The first three years in Germany, the next three in England. It became fun when we moved to Guam, I had been asking Dad to let me take Martial Arts classes, my older sister took dance classes. On Guam, he managed to find a Japanese woman, Sensei Inaba Rika, who agreed to teach me Aikido, her husband Sensei Togai taught me Judo. I spent four years learning from them. I practically lived with them for the whole four years, I learned so much more than just the physical parts of the martial arts from them.

Rika-San taught me the Japanese Tea ceremony, as well as how to cook using traditional Japanese foods. I helped Togai-San in his Zen garden. I didn’t realize for years the real lessons I had learned from them. You have to plan ahead and follow the plan to cook the traditional way but also be ready to act in a moment if things go wrong. The zen garden taught me to be in the moment and not overthink things. The real lesson they taught me above everything else was the true meaning of Bushido though I was too young at the time to really understand that.

When I was ten we left Guam. Togai-San gave me a bonsai tree, Rika-San presented me with a Tea set. They asked me to return to see them when I turned eighteen. I still have their gifts to this day, the bonsai tree has almost died a few times but I have kept it alive.

Dad had finally gotten a stateside assignment, Ft. Devens, MA, when we arrived on base we found it to be a very small Fort. (Authors note: When I was stationed at Fort Devens it only had three units other than MPs on the entire post.)

I sometimes think the Army has a sense of humor, a very sick sense of humor though. We left Guam in the middle of the summer with outside temps of over 90 degrees, only to arrive in Massachusetts on January the 2nd with 2 foot of snow on the ground and the temp was -4 below. Like I said before, a very sick sense of humor.

That did let me start school at the start of a semester instead of in the middle of one anyways. I found out I would be going to Ayer elementary school, with a mix of Army brats and locals. It would be my first time in anything other than a base school.

Mom drove me to school the day before school started, so she could register my sister and me though she would have to take my sister to the junior high to register her.

Mom handed the office lady some papers before she said, “I need to register my child for the 5th grade, please.”

The lady looked at the papers before she looked at me and asked, “Does your mother make you wear a dress young man?”

“I wear a dress because I’m a girl, Ma’am,” I said, before looking at my mom in confusion.

Mom looked pissed, she hated to be reminded of the mix-up on my name. “My DAUGHTER goes by Susan because her first name was supposed to be Johanna, a mix-up on her birth certificate made her first name Johnathan.” She said.

The lady blushed, I’m not sure what she was thinking at that moment. “Okay, then she will be in Mrs. Johnson’s class. Classes start tomorrow at 8:00. If you stop in here at the office Susan I’ll have someone walk you to your class.” She said to me.

Registering my sister Sarah at her school went without any problems. So we finished before lunch, we all badly needed warmer clothes, since Ayer didn’t have a major store and Mom wanted some things the PX (Post Exchange) did not have, so she decided to go to Boston to shop.

We found out you could take the train from Ayer to Boston for one dollar a person, so we took the train. It was my first time riding a train that I could really remember, I kinda remember the underground in London but I was only six when we left there. It was cool watching the scenery pass by slowly changing into the city of Boston. We hadn’t realized that the train from Ayer became a subway when it got into Boston. That was kinda cool.

We couldn’t get much since we would have to carry it all back on the train, the main thing Mom was after was at least a couple of good sets of warm stuff for school before the next day. When we got off the train Mom let us into what she called The Commons, it was so different stores upstairs and downstairs but unlike a normal mall, they were around an open-air square.

Mom hurried us into a store before we could get too cold, after a couple of hours we had found warm stuff for all of us. I found a coat that I wanted in a second-hand store, Mom had a fit about it being a man’s jacket but I really wanted it and it would be so warm she finally gave in and bought it for me. It was a WW 2 Army Air Corp issue bomber jacket, the main reason I wanted it though was the fact it had a patch on it from my Papa’s unit still sewn on. I don’t think Mom noticed until after I was wearing it. The jacket was big on me but I would grow into it.

We ate lunch at a small restaurant. I had my first taste of what people in Boston call fresh seafood, I was not impressed. On Guam, I had watched Mom skin the fish right before the meal it was meant for. It was still good though the clam chowder was really good.

While we were shopping with Mom, Dad had been in-processing to his new assignment. This normally included base housing for us, but Devens was so small that there wasn’t enough on-post housing. Which meant we would be staying in a motel until my parents found an apartment. My sister and I loved the idea since it meant we had our own room, though it was connected to our parent’s room. That did mean that Mom would be taking us to school until we had a place, since a school bus wasn’t going to stop at a motel.

The next morning Mom made sure we had on our new warm clothes, before taking us to school. When we walked into the office, there were two police officers standing there. I noticed the office lady nod to them as we walked in.

The male officer as he started to grab my mom said, “You’re under arrest, for...” was all he got out before I moved and had him in a wrist lock on the ground.

I looked at my Mom and asked, “What did you do?” I think it upset the two cops when I giggled as I asked that while holding down a full-grown man.

“Your mother is charged with child abuse for making you dress like a girl young man, and let go of my partner before I have to charge you with assault on a police officer.” the female cop said.

“The next person that calls me a young man is going to be in a whole lot of pain for a very long time. My name is Johnathan Susan Smith. I dress like a girl because I am a girl, Dumbass.” I responded. I didn’t let go of the one I had a hold of either.

He started to try and wiggle free, I just applied more pressure which made him yelp. “If you don’t want to have a broken wrist, be still.” I told him.

“Does this school have a nurse by any chance, since having her examine my daughter would stop all of this nonsense?” My mom asked.

The officer I had in the wrist lock spoke up and said, “Even if the nurse says Johnathan is a girl we will still have to take you in Mrs. Smith because we have an arrest warrant for you.”

Mom looked like she was ready to explode, I decided the best thing to do was get her out of here, even though it would be fun to watch her scalp the cops and the busybody office lady, that would get her sent away for a long time.

“Mom go ahead and take Sarah to her school, I’m sure by the time you and DAD get back here we can work this out. The nice Lady Police officer won’t stop you since she doesn’t want her partner hurt other than his pride, or use the office phone to call Dad.” I said while looking at the other officer.

Mom stepped over to the phone, she called the post after referring to a card in her purse. After being transferred a few times she finally caught up with Dad, I could tell he wasn’t happy since I could hear him through the phone. Mom hung up before she said, “He will be here shortly, Susan let go of the officer.”

I released the wrist lock, stepping back I bowed to the officer. “Mom, Someone needs to go let Sarah know what is going on,” I said.

Mom looked at the officers before she said, “My older daughter is in our car outside the front door one of you needs to step out and get her to shut off the car and come inside.”

The male officer gave me a dirty look before he stepped outside. He came back a few minutes later with a very confused Sarah. He stood in front of the door like he was going to make sure none of us left. It just wasn’t his day, because he tried to stop my Dad when he tried to come in. My Dad is 6’ 5” tall and weighs in at 256 pounds, when he wants to go somewhere it takes a lot to stop him.

The male cop found himself slammed into a wall and cuffed before he knew what was happening. Dad is an MP so had his own cuffs. My dad stood with his hand on his .45, staring at the female officer. “Why are you trying to arrest my wife, officer?” he asked her.

“We have a warrant for child abuse because she is making Johnathan dress like a girl,” She said.