Page 60 of Repentance and Absolution

“I put a blanket down on the settee. We can put him there.”

“All right.”

Oscar looked after the horses while I helped Irene get Clarence comfortable on the settee by the fire.

“He’s gonna need a doctor,” I said.

“Oh, Jimmy. I don’t think—”

“You want him to die?”

Irene gave me a look that made my blood run cold. “Of course not. But Clarence ain’t one for doctors. Can’t you tend to him?”

“I know a little bit. But, Irene—”

“Jimmy, Clarence can’t be seen by a doctor,” Irene stated in a tone of voice that brooked no debate.

I stared at her, and she stared back at me.

“Is it because—?” I started to say.

“Clarence is more of a man than any other person I’ve met. He’s my partner, and he’s the love of my life. I don’t care what you saw, or what you’re going to see while you tend to my husband, but a doctor might care, and I don’t know that I want that kind of attention. I’m sure Clarence won’t.”

I gazed at Irene, and for the first time she seemed like an exhausted and frightened girl. I put my now-clean hand on her shoulder.

“All right. I’ll do my best.”

“Thank you, Jimmy,” she said, covering my hand with hers for an emotional moment.

I got her to boil some water as I unbuttoned Clarence’s bloodied shirt and slid it out from under him. There was some kind of linen wrapped tight around him, and I glanced up as Irene came o’er, hoping she could tell I had questions.

“He uses it to bind his chest, so he looks like himself and not something else. I told him I don’t care, and that his chest is pretty flat anyways, but he doesn’t like moving around without it bound tight.”

I was glad I’d gotten to know Cal at the Angel and she could explain to me herself how a person might feel that they’d been born into the wrong body, because I would have been more confused than I was about Clarence. I’d been taken by surprise, but the discrepancy between Clarence’s intimate parts and his true self didn’t bother me one bit.

“I understand. I’ve only ever known a woman who had male parts, though. I didn’t know about the binding,” I said, in an apologetic tone.

Irene blinked. “You know a woman who has a—?”

Oscar had come in, and he heard Irene.

“A cock. Yep. And a pair of balls bigger than anyone. ’Cause she don’t care what anyone thinks, and she’s just herself. That’s Caliope. Only we call her Cal, for short.”

Irene’s lips parted and she gazed between us, hardly believing what we were telling her. “My goodness. It’s nice to know Clarence isn’t the only one, though I didn’t suppose he was.”

“Is Clarence all right?” Oscar asked.

“He’s got a wound that needs to be stitched up, but he ain’t gonna die, I don’t think,” I said with a glance at Irene. “He’s only passed out.”

“You want me to go for the doctor?” Oscar said.

I shook my head, glad for a second that I didn’t have to send him to town on his own, though he could have done it,wouldhave done it.

“Irene doesn’t want the doctor. There’d be too many questions.”

“Oh. Sure.”

“So, I guess I’m gonna do it,” I said, puffing some air out between my lips.