Part 4: Claire Moves East. Does Her New Life Follow?
[Claire Part 1][Claire Part 2][Claire Part 3][Claire Part 4]
Tell me if this is getting boring but I was just mesmerized by Claire’s story. She certainly wasn’t your standard average “I knew since very young that I should have been born a girl” type transgender but there she was as gorgeous and transfixing as an elder MTF can be. We were not turning a lot of heads but in that hotel, in that restaurant the head turning was done by gentlemen checking out the unaccompanied women. As soon as we were settled with menus Claire resumed her story.
The DC-8 flight back to Toronto from Vancouver was long enough for Calvin to recall his summer, how he had started out hitchhiking across the country, how when penniless in Vancouver he had been rescued by a man who recruited him into male and then drag escort work, how he was leaving it all behind but not before amassing enough money to pay his university tuition for the next year and then some.
However Calvin knew there would be a problem and it arose as soon as he deplaned. “Hi Honey, we want you to tell us all about your summer. How did you get to fly home? Were you anxious to see Mummy?” It was his mother and he knew it was going to be a challenge to provide her with enough details to satisfy her curiosity without revealing how he had sold himself around town for the last five weeks.
Calvin did his best to make up a reasonable story. He incorporated some of the scenes of his Vancouver days. He told her he’d been a server at the White Spot and a cleaner at the Cave. She respected his request when he asked that he not have to describe the ‘flop house’ where he had stayed. So all went well but it wasn’t long before Calvin was feeling a bit constrained by living back at home.
“How you going to keep them down on the farm now that . . .” I thought as Claire unfolded her story.
Claire described that when a letter for Calvin from Halifax, Nova Scotia arrived it again sent his life off in a totally new direction. A good friend had written to describe how he was playing for the university soccer team and it was not very good. He lamented that Calvin could really help the team if he came ‘down east.’ That was all Calvin needed. He contacted the university and found he could still enter and because he hadn’t been playing soccer at U of T he would be eligible to play for St Mary’s. By withdrawing before the end of September he had a full refund coming from U of T. Within two days he was off to Halifax and soon after on the ‘soccer pitch.’ The team was as bad as his friend predicted but that didn’t matter to Calvin. He was away from Toronto and away from home. He resumed dating girls and once the soccer season was over he got down to his studies. As far as Calvin expected his Vancouver life and living at home were phases far behind him.
Skip forward to the next summer. Calvin gets a summer job with a Halifax bank and moves in to a fraternity house associated with the rival university, Dalhousie. Come the summer the frat rented out its rooms to anyone who wanted one. They also rented the house out to the occasional private party. One such party was a stag party organized by a group of friends and work colleagues for one of their own. It was not a mixed stag but the real deal with 8mm porn films and when everyone was good and ready two young ladies appeared to perform a live show. The party’s guests and the guest of honor sat around in a circle in the frat’s large party room. Calvin stood against the wall beside the girls’ driver/body guard. Having been in the business he was interested to know how the girls were doing in Halifax. They both talked with a French accent so Calvin correctly assumed that they were from Quebec. They were among 10 to 15 girls that worked for Halifax’s leading madam, a woman alternately known as Ida Beck or Ida McCallum. That wouldn’t be important but as you may be guessing I’m going in to this extra detail as Claire told me that this stag night would again change her life.
As the show proceeded Calvin, drinking along with the best of them, saw the girls play with each other, use toys and one could even blow smoke rings out her vagina. But to his amazement they were not very good at oral sex. Try as they might they could not get an erection from the groom to be.
“That’s not how you do it!” Calvin heard himself somewhat drunkenly exclaiming, “Here, let me show you.”
The guests laughed nervously but not knowing Calvin they might have thought it was part of the show. Some heckled him and suggest the ‘fag’ should get out of there. After all it was the 1960s. But a few including the guest of honor suggested he should try.
It seems Calvin had not lost his touch. He did what he knew he could do and soon the lucky groom to be not only had an erection he was climaxing, a thrill Calvin encouraged the girls to enjoy as well. The evening went on a bit longer with many of the guests taking turns with the girls. Calvin knew his reputation was shot. As they say you can build a thousand bridges and not be known as a great bridge builder but suck one dick. . . . He was sure he’d be asked to leave the frat house.
As the evening wound down the girl’s driver approached Calvin. “You were quite something,” he said, would you be interested in talking with my boss?”
So it was quickly arranged that Calvin would spend the rest of the summer working by day at the bank and by night for Ida Beck/McCallum. He was not busy every night but Ida kept him busy enough mostly with visiting businessmen and politicians. He also got to move in to one of her apartments with two girls from Quebec.
As the next school year started Calvin switched to Dalhousie to study economics but kept working under the auspices of Ida. It wasn’t long before Calvin was confiding to his roommates that he was pretty good in drag. Well, that’s all the bored girls needed to start on their makeover. The result was pretty spectacular. The girls had plenty of nice sexy outfits and wigs that they wore when performing. It soon came to pass that our hero was going to college during the day as Calvin but spending many of his nights recreating Claire’s life in Vancouver.
It wasn’t long before ‘Claire,’ when she wasn’t working, was injecting herself in to the university social life going to winter carnival events, frat parties and dances. She even audited a few lectures but that was dicey as inevitably the professors would notice her and single her out for special attention. She ended up with more than one invitation for coffee after the lecture.
That ended up being Claire’s life for the next two years. There was no more playing soccer but that didn’t matter she was getting a lot of exercise and ‘scoring’ a lot, too.
“But didn’t you feel abused and manipulated?” I asked. “What about drugs? What about the law?”
“Look, I know all the stereotypes,” replied Claire, “but I went into the business with my head up and my eyes open. If I had said no to Dale he would have accepted and I would have moved on but I had something he wanted and he had something I needed. It was the same with Ida. Back in the day they called hooking the ‘white slave trade’ but we were far from slaves. Two tricks and the girls and I could earn what the average office worker of the time was only earning in a day or two.
“The business helped pay my way through college and then some. I enjoyed the money. I enjoyed my night time femme life better than the suit and tie constraints of being a economics major in university.
“But you know what I enjoyed most: it was the feeling I got when a man would climax because of what I could do for him. It validated my feminine power.”
“I’m with you there,” I interjected, “but how did that bring you to Toronto?”
“Well, all good things come to an end,” said Claire, “In my senior year the bank offered me the choice of careers. I could work my way through the branch level to eventually become a branch manager and then regional manager or I could join their relatively new investment banking division. The former would lead to a lot of moves around Atlantic Canada but the latter was a straight line back to Toronto which already then was becoming the center of transgender life in Canada. “
“What about your parents?”
“They were okay. It was a long time before they learned about Claire but they understood that I needed my own space. Right away I bought my own apartment and they would not visit unexpectedly. When they came over I was ‘Cal’ and when they found anything girlish around they assumed it had been left by some gal staying over. To them I was quite a playboy.”
It wasn’t long before the Calvin/Claire duo were well established in Toronto and when Calvin traveled on business Claire was almost always along.
Being an up-and-coming young man in the bank business Calvin had no shortage of young women letting him know they were available. He dated a few but nothing serious happened. By then his heart was strongly tied to Claire.
Soon his growing long hair, the pierced ears and lack of a steady relationship had everyone guessing that Calvin must be gay. He didn’t discourage those thoughts and as he was so good at his job everyone just let him be.
He brought in several rich clients which also helped his standing with the bank. There were a few who he met and recruited their banking business while he was servicing their carnal needs at night. Needless to say when Claire recommended Calvin as a financial planner she did not say that she was he.
So let’s fast forward in to the 1980s. AIDS swept through Toronto and almost the entire world. How did Claire avoid becoming a statistic? Partly it was blind luck, she said. Claire had just chosen to enter a monogamous relationship with one of her ‘dual clients.’ He did not want to share her so he had helped her buy a new condo apartment. Her house was sold for a very tidy profit. They stayed faithfully monogamous (except for his wife) for seven years until his heart attack happened as he was settling in to bed with . . . no, not Claire; luckily, well not lucky for him. He was at home with his wife. Claire only learned about his passing when the estate’s lawyer contacted Calvin as his estate was being liquidated. No, there was no mystery bequest to Claire.
Claire eased back in to the ‘trade.’ But her heart wasn’t fully in it and she had absolutely no financial need.
She rarely ever tried to meet clients ‘on the street.’ However Thursdays in Toronto were an exception. I could relate to that. I loved Toronto Thursdays and perhaps Claire and I may have passed each other once or twice while strolling Maitland Ave, the street favored by the drag hookers and their clients. At that time there were virtually no laws against soliciting in Canada and the police morality squads definitely took the night off on Thursdays as they knew a lot of their political bosses and their business associates would be on the prowl Thursday nights before heading to their home town or cottage the next day.
So that tied us together a bit but by the time we had finished our desert and coffee I’d pretty well heard Claire’s life story. She lived as a man when it suited her; a woman when she wanted to. That made me wonder how she would define herself. I asked.
That sent Claire off on a long and interesting explanation of her personal theories on transgender. So interesting it had me re-thinking the whole concept of gender identity. I’ll tell you about it next time.
To be continued. . . .
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Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment