Dreams Take Flight, Part 3

[Part 1][Part 2][Part 3]

When we last checked in on them 30-something Patrick, a flight attendant, had just joined his crew mates to leave the hotel and take up their duties flying to Denver before an out-and-back to San Francisco. That was pretty routine stuff in the life of airline staff. In this particular crew there were two pilots and two other flight attendants. The pilots were male. The other flight attendants were female. That may not be significant except that for this day Patrick was going to be working as Patricia or Patty.

It’s a long story how this all came to be. You can read the adventures in previous issues of TGForum.

The crew had a pretty long standing seating order in the shuttle taking them from the hotel to the airport. The captain always took the front passenger seat, Margo and Jill the third seat. That left the first officer and Patrick sitting together in the second row. Usually the first officer, Dan, did not talk with Patrick. They guessed he was a bit uncomfortable sitting next to a homosexual. That was common in those days.

However this time as they entered the van everyone noticed a change in Dan. He smiled at Patty, he held the door and offered his hand as she entered. He helped her with the seat belt. He chatted and complimented her on her looks. Margo and Jill could just look at each other and smiled. They knew the signs.

It was going to be a three-hop day for the crew: In to Denver and then out and back to San Francisco. They would serve something over 500 passengers. Patty was nervous that it would take just one of those passengers to read her, blow her cover and get the crew in a whole lot of trouble. Margo and Jill were not in the least bit nervous. They knew Patty was beautiful. They had given her a great manicure and her new pony tail looked fabulous. Thanks to that hotel towel her butt looked pretty good too.

So the day was a routine one for most of the crew. There was one incident when one of their frequent customers, a commuter between Denver and San Francisco, recognized Margo and Jill and complimented them on their new cabin mate. They just smiled to each other and when he asked for an introduction they laughed it off and told him to behave.

It was not a routine day for Patty. She was on pins and needles, no more so than when they went to the crew lounges during their stops. However everyone was congenial and treated her as one of the girls. Dan seemed always to be around perhaps ready to step in if anyone seemed about to act out. He wasn’t needed for that but Patty found herself warming to him and definitely warming to the idea of being Patty. At first she couldn’t put her finger on the difference. As an undersized, slightly effeminate male, walking with a bit of a sway and talking with a noticeable ‘gay lisp’ Patrick was used to being shunned if not avoided by men and only tolerated by women. Patrick had endured four pretty tortuous years of high school where his only escaped from the persecution meted out by the straight crowd were those few furtive moments where he could link up with a like-minded male. After all it was the 1970s and the world was much less liberal than it is today.

Before the flights Patty had been imagining what would happen if someone ‘read’ her. Would she be in the middle of a scene? If Patrick often faced not-so subtle hostility what would an outed Patty face? The first leg was pretty uneventful. Patty had been scheduled to work the forward cabin, the First Class, but Margo had agreed to a switch. The Economy cabin was always much busier but there was far less personal interaction with the passengers. They just placed down a plastic breakfast, filled a coffee cup and moved on.

However for the second leg out to San Francisco the other girls insisted Patty take over the front of the plane which included greeting the First Class passengers and making the cabin announcements. Then she would be expected to personally serve each first class passenger and refer to them by name.

‘Oh, oh. Here’s trouble,’ thought Patty as one of the first passengers rounded the gangway. It was a Mr. O’Neil, a regular between Denver and the Bay Area. The other girls said he was working on developing phones that people could carry around with them, maybe eventually fit in their pockets. However to Patrick he was just another cold fish who probably portrayed his disdain for gay men to cover his own sexual identity insecurity.

“Good morning, Mr. O’Neil,” beamed Patty as she handed him a fresh copy of the Denver Post.

“Good morning. Thank you,” he responded warmly. And so it was with each of the dozen or so first class passengers. A warm greeting got a warm response.

Same with the perfunctory announcements: it wasn’t exactly drag show humor but Patty’s natural comfort with the microphone had her commenting on how well the life jackets hugged her partners’ bodies. It brought smiles to the passengers’ faces and attention to the safety announcements. The same comment from a male would today surely bring a sexual harassment complaint.

When that flight concluded and the passengers de-planed Patty could hardly wait to gush to her crew mates how well things had gone for her. “You know Mr. O’Neil? He slipped me his business card. I’m to call him the next time we have a layover here.”

“Oh, he’s done that with both of us, too,” laughed one of the girls.

“Yes, but you’re both married.”

“Hey, don’t take this coffee, tea or me thing too far,” chided Margo. “There always is a motive for that dinner and drinks.”

“Oh, I know that. I did tell him I had a boyfriend which is partly true. I have several.”

The three laughed and prepared for the return flight which happened without incident even with them carrying a college basketball team to Denver and Patty suggesting that if any of them were having trouble with their seat belts Jill and Margo would be happy to do the job for them. The other girls thought she might have crossed the line but the passengers seemed to just laugh it off.

As the day wore on and as her crew mates told her how the men were asking about her and watching her as she worked Patty started to think that she could get used to this. However soon enough the day was over. The crew was back in Denver and after their short shuttle ride back to the airline’s operations building they were each in to their cars and headed for home.

Still dressed as Patty, that meant a new challenge for Patrick. How would her two flat mates greet her? They were also young gay men, one also a flight attendant, the other a bank clerk. Both wore mustaches as was the common fashion of the day. They both despised the common fallacy that all gay men were ‘queens’.

“Well look at you!” said Richard, the bank clerk, “and I didn’t think Hallowe’en was for another couple of months.”

“Who are you and what have you done with our Patrick?” exclaimed Blair, the other flight attendant.

“It’s me and I worked this way,” replied Patrick, “the girls insisted. They got me the uniform so I decided to try it. You know it went pretty well.”

“That’s nice for you but get cleaned up and changed. We are heading to Capitol Hill for a little bar hopping,” ordered Richard.

Soon the three friends were on their way and it seemed to Patrick that his day as Patricia may soon be a distant memory. It so happened that for his next few shifts he was not scheduled with Jill and Margo and then there was a week’s vacation to attend one of those new gay pride weeks, this one in Palm Springs.

While for most of his time at the Palm Springs Gay Pride Patrick would be Patrick he did take along one sequined gown and make up as he had been booked to perform a short set of Aretha Franklin tunes, not as karaoke but before a concert audience.

The concert was going to turn out to be a life changing moment for Patrick. Yes, he was a hit with the audience belting out songs like Respect but as he sang You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman and the audience cheered each repetition of the title line that he realized that yes, he enjoyed feeling like a ‘natural woman.’ It did not hurt that there was one part in the song where Patty grabs her behind a bit suggestively and sings “You make me feel so good inside.” Of course that drove the mostly gay crowd wild as they well understood the double meaning.

Sure, he thought afterwards, he might lack the proper plumbing but with the right clothes, the right hairstyle and the right feeling in his heart Patrick realized that it was being Patricia that gave him the most happiness in life and the most positive feedback from those he met. He formulated a plan. He could hardly wait to get back to Denver to talk with Jill and Margo about it.

Patrick phoned Jill and got a busy signal while Jill was phoning Patrick and getting a busy signal. Jill was phoning to make sure ‘Patricia’ would be coming along on their next flight assignment together as Patrick was leaving a message that the ladies should expect Patricia to be along.

Patrick was to be in ‘drab’ for their first leg out to L.A. then switching to Patricia for the return to the Denver hub and out again to L.A. where they would layover. The crew was pretty busy on the flights and in between so did not talk too much about Patrick being Patricia and how that was unfolding but once the three got to their hotel and had a chance to freshen up they headed to the lounge for and some serious conversation. Patricia, Patty when off duty, looked very attractive in her new navy blue mini skirt and low cut blue and white blouse.

“Girl! Have you had a boob job?” asked Jill as she marveled at Patty’s newly apparent cleavage.

“Do you like it?” smiled Patty, “No it’s nothing like that but I learned a way to tape my chest together that gives a pretty natural look. Do you like it?”

“You’re going to have to show us,” said Margo with a wink and a smile.

“So what is the word? Have you finally realized that you should have been born a female and you are going to correct nature’s mistake?” asked Jill.

“If it was good enough for that pilot over at Eastern it’s good enough for you,” added Margo, referring to a story recently in the news where a pilot at Eastern Airlines had been able to keep her job after undergoing gender re-assignment surgery.

“No, it’s nothing like that. Well, maybe a bit,” explained Patty, “All the time I was growing up I never felt a desire to be a girl or woman. I never felt I should have been one. While it is true that some people, even well-meaning relatives said that I should have been born a girl or that I would make a pretty girl they were just referring to my slight stature and fair complexion. Sometimes they were being sarcastic but usually they meant well. At school it was different. I was teased relentlessly for being a boy who looked a lot like a girl. But the look wasn’t by choice. I just looked that way.

“One summer I was sent away to wilderness camp. I think my parents hoped it would make a man of me. It was better there and I really liked it when one of the counsellors paid me special attention and I was picked to help him and be his canoe mate. Then came the overnight trip and I was to be his tent partner.

“I think I know where this is going,” chimed in Jill.

“You guessed it,” responded Patty, “It was a cold evening so he suggested we zip our sleeping bags together. I didn’t even know we could do that. Not only could we do that but our body heat helped each other keep warm but that is not the point. Soon he was suggesting he could make me feel really good and he was playing with my private parts. I didn’t stop him. Soon he went further. Part of me wanted to stop him but I liked the feeling. It was like nothing I’d ever felt before.”

“Did you fill his mouth?” asked one of the others.

“I don’t remember so I don’t think I did but I’m pretty sure he got himself off because he left for a while and when he came back he was more reserved and started talking that we should not tell anyone about what had happened. He also split up the sleeping bags.

“That set a pattern for the rest of the trip and the rest of the summer at the camp. That was an older boy, a young man molesting a boy not yet in his teens but for the most part I liked it. He was being nice to me and not bullying me like many of the other campers were doing. “

“Had he read that you were gay?” asked Jill.

“That’s just the thing,” replied Patty, “Up to that point in my life I had never had a thought of being with a man. I had even had crushes on some of the girls around me but I’d been too shy to act on any of them. I hear lots of gay men talking about how they were born that way but for me that was not the case. I just sort of fell in to it. I went to bed with a man and I liked it. It wasn’t long before my mentor was suggesting that I try handling and going down on him. I liked it and I particularly liked the powerful feeling of bringing arousal to him. I still love that sensation.”

“There is hardly a straight woman in the world that does not enjoy the sensation of a man getting aroused by what she offers,” interjected Jill.

“But you know rather than being born to be gay I look back and think that if my first sexual arousal had been with a girl then I would be straight today. I wasn’t born gay but I was imprinted at a very impressionable moment.”

Just then the two pilots appeared and offered to take the ladies to dinner. The offer was accepted so more talk about the making of Patricia would have to wait.

Next time I promise. I really promise to wrap this up and tell you the outcome of Patrick’s journey to Patricia and the big role her crew mates had in making it happen.

Moved to make a comment? Login here and use the comment area below.

Tags: crossdressing, featured, Transgender

Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment