Chapter 14
			     The Kids........

	How would we deal with the children?  Medically, it was no problem.
Housing the children also was easy.  How do you help the kids with the
extreme mental stress of this situation?  These children were ready to die.
They were unusually easy to put very hard concepts to.  In the case of
both, they had accepted death.  When it was decided to allow them into the
program, it was with many concerns.  It wouldn't be very easy.
	Our location was not a very good thing for children also.  We were
in sin city.  How could we not corrupt the minds of these children?  We
couldn't lock them up.  We had to make life as easy as possible for them.
We were going to be receiving some new children patients soon and something
had to be done for them.
	We were going to have to assign a mother figure to these kids.
Someone who could help with the questions that these children were going to
ask.  As usual, I was going to be stuck with the job.  Can you imagine me,
ex-man and clutzy engineer/public servant, a mother figure to a bunch of
sick kids?
	But I had other duties.  So I could not do this alone.
Mrs. Erricson, wife of the presidents son and our distinguished guest
volunteered.  I was grateful.  She was getting her new "sister" ready for
the new world.  She was planning to stay for a while.  I hoped I could
convince the Erricsons to stay in New Orleans.  The Erricson's accepted us
as their personal crusade and cause.  You have no Idea as to how glad I
could keep them (and my two favorite Secret service agents.)
	Dr. Gurber was on hand when the first two kids arrived.  They had
their mothers and fathers in tow.  The group also included a doctor from
St. Jude children's hospital.  They were extremely interested in how all of
this was going to work out.  (So were we.)
	First day.....We did all the blood work.  The kids were classic
Kemo sickness with balding and frail appearance.  One was female and one
was male.  They both had been room mates while at St. Jude.  When the
decision was made by the parents to go ahead with the program, they were to
remain paired.  Everyone was happy about this as while both were changing
hysically, they could teach each other how to live.  We would also make
sure that an instructor/counselor would always be around to answer
questions and help solve problems.  We would have to teach both how to play
again.
	This was a big controversy with the hotel guests.  Why interfere
with the way these kids would grow up.  They had a right to live the way
they wished.  Teaching the boy how to play with dolls went against my
grain.  But how would we give this to be new female the skills to live in
the new world.  We decided to let it happen naturally.  If we forced a
change in mind set, then it was going to cause undue stress.  We were the
first (as usual) to do any thing new.  We were the experts in this drug.
	John and Rebecca were great kids.  They may be 12 and 10 but after
talking with them, it was obvious that cancer had matured them to early
adult.  The very first day, after the blood work, we were going to give the
first dose by injection.  These little guys were sick and needed the drug
in the fastest form.  Before the drug was administered, I had to talk to
the parents.
	Johns parents were apprehensive to say the least.  The mother was
crying and saying that her son would be a freak.  (My hackles went up, but
I kept my cool.)
	"Good morning folks.  I'm Leslie .  I run the hotel and facilities
here.  I came by to see if there was anything I could do to help you settle
in."
	"Hello, I am Gracie Parnell and this is my husband Arron.
Dr. Gurber tells me that you will be involved with my son's education and
reorientation.  We would like to know something about you and your staff."
	"Well, there is not much to our staff.  We run a very small ship
here and I am also chief cook and bottle washer.  I run the place and do
the jobs that doesn't get done by anyone else.  The main thing you need to
know is that I am one of the first patients to go through the program.  I
have been physically complete for 4 years now."
	"Do you like boys or girls?"  Gracie asked.
	"Fair question.  I was always straight.  I like girls still.  But,
because I run this place, I have to deal with both gays and bisexuals.  I
do not make this a sexual issue.  I prefer to let the patient in question
deal with their sexuality as they want.  We do not judge or guide here.  We
get people through a very difficult situation and give them the tools to
survive in a very cruel world."
	"We are greatly concerned with the sexual orientation of our son
after the change occurs."  Gracie said.
	"We will not interfere with that.  But you have to know that that
is a major controversy here in the Clinic and we will be very careful in
how we deal with your child.  We are in uncharted territory and need to
exercise great care."  Both parents shook their heads in agreement.
	The Girl's parents were a different matter.  It appeared that they
were almost ecstatic over the fact that their daughter would not die.  But
also that they always wanted a boy and the kid was a tom-boy anyway.  That
would help.  The girls name was Rebecca and the parents were Tom and Gena
Bartlett.  Their questions were simple compared to the boy's.
	We (The hotel and clinic staff) had decided to let both of the
children play anywhere they wished.  The children could go up to the top
floor of the hotel and play.  No one else was allowed up there with the
security the president's son/daughter had.  It was mutually agreed that the
children could go up there and play.  Bert and Ken both were regular
features around the hotel and kinda wanted to help the kids out.  We didn't
discuss the other residents with the parents.  After all, it was patient
confidentiality.
	We were going to open the program up to 20 children.  St. Jude was
sending the kids to us and some of the staff.  This caused some problems.
I had doubts about the amount of space here in the Hotel.  The president's
son was at the out transition point.  (This meant that SHE was ready to
leave.)  But We were hoping to get them to stay the whole year.  The public
conception of the President's new daughter would be very interesting.  She
would not be a home body.  I was personally told by Beth that she would not
let her new "sister" be a stay at home.  She would be very much in the
public eye.  She would be the unofficial ambassador of the program.  I
couldn't bare to see what the news media did to them.
	As the official operations Chief of the "Hotel", it was my job to
see that everything went as planned.  This new program with the kids was
going to be a bear.  I had kids from range 7 yr. old to 15 years old.  This
lot was 11 boys and 9 girls including John and Rebecca.  I was secretly
wishing that the mix was more girls because it was easier socially and
sexually for the girls.  Socially, they would inherit the advantages of
being male in a very male society.  The boys however were going to become
second class citizens.  I had 9 sets of very upset parents who were going
to be very picky as to what their new daughters were going to be taught.  I
needed help and didn't know where I was going to get it.  Any of the male
to female patients were suspect in their eyes because they were "Perverts".
I took some offense to the term and pointed it out to several of the
parents.
	"What are these people supposed to do?"  I asked.  "Die ?"  They
usually backed off when they saw how I felt.  I had the common sense to not
let Billy be seen in the complex in her normal dress. (Outrageous) She was
warned to keep it legit in the hotel.  The parents would have a baby if
they saw her coming.  We were going to be very busy. Now I have to go into
an explanation of how this drug was going to work on these children.  It
has to be remembered that the drug does a DNA level modification.  Yes,
Children develop the sex organs just before puberty and have a tendency to
stay where they are.  Dr. Gurbers magic bullet goes in and alters the cells
individual DNA to the opposite sex.  It was one of the most difficult
things that I had to teach to all the children and parents.  The children
were taking every thing very well.  After all, they could discontinue Kemo
and grow back normal hair and not be sick all the time.  The parents were
over reacting and this was upsetting the children.  All had to understand
that when the first dose of this drug was administered, they could not go
back.  It was certain death and painful.  More painful than they had
before.  John and Rebecca were beginning to stabilize and recover.  The
parents understood that there was no turning back after the first
injection.  It had been a week sense they had arrived.  They needed the
drug very badly and could not wait any longer.  Rocky roads, here we come.
	Socially, things were getting a bit strange in the United States
and Abroad.  Our clinic was the most talked about institution in the World.
Yes, there were others. But we were the first and the best.
	I frankly was a bit ticked with Tulane Medical and their constant
interference in the operation of my hotel and nursing staff.  I was going
to Honor Dr. Gurber's wishes and cooperate with them.
	Dr. Gurber was a billionaire and Billie was becoming famous in her
own right.  Dr. Gurber and Caroline were doing quite well together.  I had
not talked to either of them before the children arrived at the Hotel in
several months.  I had enough to do as it was.  So we had a lot to catch up
on.
	Caroline was doing more zoo studies and coming up with very
interesting findings.  The sex change aspect of the drug was not affected.
But by fine tuning the drug doses by blood work results, they could control
the comfort level of the patient.  The time of transition was unaffected.
	Dr. Gurber was dressing more and more as a female.  No one was
questioning his sexual preference.  The news media just figured that he was
playing some kind of publicity game.  He would arrive in a town as a female
and when he arrived where he was going, he would change into the proper
dress of a doctor.  This served him well as he could move around without
being accosted by the news media and special interest groups, most of the
time.
	Billie and Robert were getting on famously.  Even though Billie was
constantly out of town, the relationship between the couple was very good.
Robert could have come to work for us anytime he wanted.  But he had been
with the same hotel for years and years.  He was loyal and enjoyed where he
worked and dealing with the tourists and all the characters in the quarter.
	All the previous patients that had gone through the program were
out there making a name for all of us.  It was incredible how many people
we had helped and from all the backgrounds they had come from.  The perfect
example was the President's son/daughter.  By the way, President Erricson
had come to New Orleans secretly to visit his new daughter.  I had the
chance to visit with the man and enjoyed a very long conversation with him.
	Our little program was responsible for a lot of changes in the
world.  The Senate and the House of representatives had several bills in
the works to fix all the discrimination going on.  Several of the people
themselves were Gems.  We were the talk of the world.
	Tulane security continued to harass Marilyn.  They wanted
desperately to get rid of her.  So they always were coming up with some
kind of problem they thought she couldn't handle.  I was getting Bert and
Ken to help (secretly) Marilyn fix the problems and keep the idiots off her
back.
	Marilyn desperately wanted to take the drug.  She was still TS and
didn't have the features she really wanted.  But I kept telling her that
until she got a cancer, it was useless.  She was already taking Hormones
and the drug would do nothing for her until there was something for the
drug to react to.  She of course knew all of this.  But I know she was
envious of me and the other girls who had the figures and body she really
wanted.
	We were so famous at the hotel that several of the tour groups
began to run groups by the front lobby of our hotel.  We had people of all
ages and ethnic groups coming and going all the time.  There was always
some poor sole who didn't pass and was going somewhere when the tour people
came by.  If there were cat calls or problems, Marilyn or one of the other
full time security people would do something.  We even had details going
into the quarter with the patients just to make sure that there were never
any problems.  We had a staff of at least 50 people full time and
volunteers numbering into the hundreds.  All would dress in an invisible
manner.  I even did it several times.  Only problem was that everyone knew
me and I could not hide my DD's or my figure.  I looked just like Dolly
Parton with brown hair.  I didn't try it very much.  But I always did get
the attention away from the patients.
	Now back to the kids.  All of the children accepted into the
program were mature beyond their normal age.  After all, if you are going
to die and know it, you are going to grow up allot quicker than a normal
child.  Therefore, it was not necessary to have to explain to the 20
children in the program that people were not very friendly to Gems.  Even
if we had no choice.  Even though these kids were better equipped to accept
the new role, they were still going to be protected to al level that normal
patients would not.
	The very first program that we set up was a recreation and play
program.  Then we had to set up a school.  I would not do this.  I may be
the chief cook and bottle washer, but school teacher was not a role that I
was going to accept.  They would have to get someone else.
	Ben Carter was about half way with the transition from male to
female.  He was now past 6 months and was more woman than man.  He resisted
the need to dress in the female role to the bitter end. Only logic finally
won out.
	Ben was out in the quarter.  I had met him in one of the local
restaurants to have some coffee and chat.  Things were going his way with
his old job.  He would be rehired as a New Orleans city policewoman.  It
was not his choice, but it was the best "he" could do.  I had just finished
a long day trying to get a teacher for the kids.  I was worn out with
people asking questions as to the condition of their children and who was
qualified to handle the job of teacher.  As usual, if something was going
to go wrong, I was in the middle of it.  A group of young adults had come
in to the place and were being a bit roughly.  Several had been drinking.
They had spotted Ben and were checking out his braless chest.  It was
obvious that he was a Digem patient.  They could always tell by the
abnormal breast development that the M to F patients had.  They started
calling the poor man crude names and being obnoxious.  Ben was staying very
cool.  Being a cop in a town like New Orleans gave these guys a high level
of patience.
	Ben was not going to be like some of our other patients.  When the
transition was over he would keep the same name and allow the sex
designation to change.  He was not the only one to do this.  But this is a
hard road for the unready.  He would continue to dress male and not do the
hyper-feminine thing that most of our patients chose to do.  New Orleans
had been assigning full time policemen and women to our Hotel.  They were
calling it the Center now.  So there were always some of them around.  New
Orleans was getting world wide publicity over the facility and were more
than agreeable to give a permanent detail to us.  It would be more than
likely that Ben would be assigned to us.  I asked him about it.
	"It doesn't matter.  I am alive.  I will have a job in what I like
to do.  So I can't complain too much.  And I can work the special details
dressed as a woman or a man.  This ought to be interesting."  he said.
	I pointed out to him that he would learn to act and look like a
female if this was what he wanted to do.  So that was how I finally got Ben
to give us a feminine name and enroll in the beauty classes.  He, now she,
would be a continuous hard case.  He wasn't the first and She wouldn't be
the last.
	Bert and Ken would be great help to Ben.  They weren't even in the
program and both could out dress any of our current patients.  It looked
like they were getting a kick out of dressing now and I believe they were
both now Full Transvestites.  You could tell by the way they both
approached dressing up.  They were having too much fun.  I noticed that
they liked leather and the hard look.  They both were dressed even while
off duty.  I rarely saw the male versions unless the detail required it.
It was clinched when I found out through the grape vine that Bert had
gotten a prescription for hormones from Dr. Gurber when he was last here.
I kept that to myself as that would have caused poor Burt some grief from
his co-workers.  But Burt and Ken would be able to teach Ben what he needed
to survive outside.
	Cissy was beautiful.  Carolines mother was obviously jealous.  But
the marriage was working out well.  Before the transformation, Robert David
was just a lanky average person.  As Cissy, she was just like a fashion
model.  Tall and large breasted with a very nice face.  Caroline was proud
of how her father had handled the transformation.  She was not very happy
with how her mother had handled it though.  Cissy was going to be quite a
bit to handle though.  Men were hitting on "her" quite a bit.  Caroline's
mother stuck to her new "sister" like glue.  It was more like jealousy than
concern.  Who knows how people will react to the change of a loved one?
Yes, they still loved one another.  But the stress of the change was there.
This was another rocky road.
	It needs to be pointed out here that as a rule, we discouraged our
patients from having intimate relations for at least a year after leaving
our clinic/hotel.  It was an emotional problem that caused many
complications.  These men had been changed into genetic females.  In all
ways, emotionally included, they were women.  They had the emotional
responses that women had and sex was one of the most powerful.  It was too
easy for a Gem patient to get emotionally involved with another person.  If
they were married, it was a little easier.  But, these people got
emotionally confused.  I know of at least 5 patients who got emotionally
involved with the opposite sex and were hurt.  It became one of our
endroctranation speeches.  We didn't have the right to interfere with the
personal life of our patients.  But we did have the obligation to warn each
of them that this kind of thing could occur.
	Marilyn very rarely had to break up a domestic fight between
patients and family in the Hotel/clinic.  When she did, it was a wild one.
I can remember this one family who had a M to F patient.  I think those
people fought constantly until they left our facility.  Marilyn had to have
a guard stand by on that particular floor of the Hotel just in case.  They
would start up right at bed time.  Once, they even had to call in the
"crash" team.  They handled the tough security problems.  I was always
notified when this team was activated.
	The guard had notified the front desk that there was a problem.  A
pair of men went to the room.  There were these two women, totally nude,
fighting each other over a piece of clothing.  Being sensitive to the
situation, they called the female staff.  Before it was all over, both the
men and women security people had their hands full.  No weapons were
involved, but there were fingernails and teeth.  The clinic had to give
tetanus shots to all the staff involved and both of the combatants.  I had
to personally chew out the two.
	Now that is not to say that the F to M patients didn't have
problems too.  They had a heightened aggression factor due to testosterone.
These fights were even worse.  Women fight dirty.  When a female to male
Gem fought, it was dirty and almost to the death.  We had quite a few of
these fights where two patients had it out.  It got to the point that when
the two saw each other, it was war.  The Hotel was a very hectic place.