If I Was Your Girl

by Meredith Russo

If I’d had the strength to be normal, I thought, or at least the strength to die, then everyone would have been happy.

“What if your son told you he was your daughter?”

He looked at me and I felt like I had not had a bath for days, but in my insides instead of my outsides.

“You can have anything,” she said, “once you admit you deserve it.”

“You ain’t sick, hon,” Mom said. She kissed my cheek and hugged me so tight I thought I might break a rib. “That’s joy.”