Confession

Non-Winner Submitted on 06/07...295 Words

Margaret stood on the balcony, looking down the eleven stories and hoping Louis wouldn’t end up throwing her over the railing while her husband sat quietly on the sofa in the living room.

“You’ve been moody all day. What’s the matter?”

“Well…I have a confession to make to you and well, to be honest with you, I just don’t know if I can say it.”

“You having an affair?”

Margaret shook her head. “No. It’s nothing like that.”

“Then just start at the beginning. I’m sure you’re making a much bigger deal of it than it really is. I mean, after all, we’ve been married for over a year now and I think I know you pretty well.”

“You don’t know me as well as you think you do,” Margaret said turning to look through the doorway at her husband.

“Trust me; I doubt anything you have to say will surprise me.”

Margaret folded her arm over her chest and leaned her head back to look up at the underneath side of the balcony above her.

“It’s really kind of complicated,” she finally said.

Louis patted the sofa cushion beside him. “Come on, sit over here and just tell me what it is.”

“I don’t know if I can.”

“Look, Margaret…”

“That’s just it,” Margaret interrupted. “That is not my real name.”
“Excuse me?”

“Margaret. It’s an assumed name. Not the name I was born with.”

Louis looked confused and walked out onto the balcony with his wife.
“I don’t understand.”

“It was after the…the surgery. I assumed a new name. A woman’s name. My birth name was Matthew.”

Louis turned white with realization. “Surgery? Matthew? You mean your really a…a man?”

Margaret shook her head. “Not anymore, but I used to be,” Margaret said.