My classmate grew up without a father. My mother devoted her whole life to him. The more we grew up, the more he drifted away from his boy classmates.
He was getting more and more noticed by the women around him. He showed more and more feminine habits: at first he was walking hand in hand with female classmates during recess, listened only to female music, watched different “soap operas”, was always worried if his clothes got dirty or crumpled, then he had an elongated haircut and corrected it in front of the mirror after each lesson. He always had a little mirror handy, and his way of talking was peculiar. It was clear that my classmate was not like other guys.
In the ninth grade he started selling women’s cosmetics, always bringing catalogs and samples to school. One morning he came into class and said: “Girls, look at this cool nail polish.” A classmate held out his hand to his friends, and I saw he had a full-fledged manicure! He wasn’t bullied at school just because they respected his older brother, who was a normal and athletic guy. The guy was always up to date on the latest fashions and had an excellent understanding of women’s “intimate things.” Classmates freely discussed all their affairs and gossiped with him. He also went to discos only with his girlfriends, and he danced purely like a woman.
After finishing school his mother sent him to the military academy (she fought tooth and nail against her son’s non-traditional orientation). But less than a year later he was kicked out of the academy and went to a college to study hairdressing, makeup and manicure. He mastered this field to perfection, and got a job in a beauty salon.
One day I met his mother, and decided to ask about the former classmate. Mom blushed and lowered her eyes. There was no end to her embarrassment. She said that her son had gotten married without her knowledge. His chosen one turned out to be a boy! After this news, mother told her son that she no longer wanted to know him. After that he never made himself known to her. A year later my mom found out from my older son that he and his chosen one had bought an apartment and adopted a child.
On the tenth anniversary of my high school graduation, my whole class gathered to visit our class teacher. This classmate came too. He was showing his girlfriends pictures of his close-knit family. I learned from the pictures that he already had two adopted children (a girl and a boy).
