Excerpt: But Before That

"And?" I asked.

"Weird is a good word for it," said Lupe.

"And that's about all I'm going to learn, I'm thinking."

"Words fail, when we have no common anatomy to base our communication on," she said. "It's part of the fun."

"I guess," I said. I sat up, facing her on the bed. She had put a lamp near the bed, so I reached over and turned it on, training the beam on her face like an interrogation lamp from one of those bad movies. "Are you now, or have you ever been, female?" I asked her, in my best bad cop voice.

"Yes, officer," she squeaked, trying to sound frightened.