The Time Travelling Transgender

The Time Travelling Transgender by Jemia de Blondeville

Several days after getting home after my GRS, i was sat in my room, listening to some David Bowie, and feeling reminiscent about my life. whilst looking at the various collectibles i had lying around the room. when my eyes came across a bowl of old glass marbles, just as the Changes track came on. so i walked over picking up the bowl, and found a pair of multi-coloured marbles, which i held in my hand,then began wondering what life was like at the time of their making, and within seconds of this thought, there was a large flash of colours, and i suddenly found myself stood on a pavement outside a house numbered 89? i pondered for a moment, then decided to head upwards, i got to the end, and saw that i had been in Oakley Street? to me there was no significance whatsoever. but now i was on a main road, and saw another street sign Kings Road, Chelsea! how on earth did i end up here? i then noticed that there were quite a few people milling around, all wearing old fashioned clothes, most were glancing over at me. i then noticed the cars were also from another era, so although already completely confused and puzzled as to how i got here, i could only assume, that i had landed in the midst of a filming of some historical drama, but i had no idea what era it was from, until i saw some men in uniform, so guessed it was set in the late 1930's or 40's. but despite this, i was wondering how had i been transported from my flat, to here, and questioning my sanity.
Whilst in this confused state, i was approached by a woman,she was smiling, and complimented me on my beautiful colourful clothes, and where did i obtain them? still at a loss as to where i was, and how did i get here, and that something very strange had happened, i decided to tell her that i'd made them myself. she introduced herself as Josephine Eckles, with a K, and i told her my name and we were soon lost in conversation. she was very friendly and chatty. and as we walked along Kings Road, i occasionally peered into shop windows, and thought that this production team had really gone to every extreme to make sure that there weren't any give aways, and i was still getting curious looks from people. anyway Josephine asked me if i fancied a drink, i somehow presumed she mean't a cuppa, but i told her i didn't have any money with me, she told me not to worry. so we walked some more, until we came to a plain looking door. she knocked, and we were let in to what was obviously some kind of private club, she said " welcome to the Gateway!" we walked in, and there were mostly women there, some in old style forces uniform, we wandered up to the bar, and i was asked what would i like. and as i'd only had my GRS less than a fortnight ago, i opted for a lemonade, or soda, both her and the barmaid raised an eyebrow at this, it was quite funny, as they were almost synchronized. i thought at least, i'll have time to try and figure out what was going on.
We sat ourselves down, and got chatting, mostly about my clothes, and i had to invent what had inspired me, so i said Asia, and Mexico, and Peru hoping that i'd blind her with exotic ideas to explain the vivid colours. i told her i was recovering from a bit of a cold, hence the soft drink, and me not feeling really 'with it' and just to make sure, i asked her was today the 10th of June? she said of course it is, i felt relieved a bit by this, until she said "it's saturday the 10th of June 1944!" i nearly fell off my chair!
she looked a bit alarmed at my reaction, i explained that i was still getting a few 'dizzy' moments, but i was fine, but needed the toilet, so she pointed me to the ladies, and off i went. when i got inside, and bolted the door, i found the marbles in my pocket, and wished myself home, and again there was a flash of colours, and this time i noticed they were all the colours of the rainbow. and in an instant, i was back in my flat. i quickly checked the time and date of my laptop, and saw, that although i'd been gone for a couple of hours, curiously only a couple of minutes had passed in the present time.
I logged in, after first getting myself a cuppa a quick bite to eat, and doing some necessary post op things, and began googling! I first checked out The Gateway, and it came up straight away and was known to be a meeting place for the lesbian community, and had first started in the early 1940's in Chelsea, i tried to find some pics of it, but there was nothing from that period, i was kind of hoping to see a picture with me in it, that would of been fairly mind blowing, but kind of grateful there wasn't! i then googled 89 Oakley Street, but at first there was nothing of any significance, although curiously, when i scrolled down, it came up as a well known landmark, as David Bowie had had a flat there in the beginning of the 1970's, but had only stayed there for about a year. but it still teased my imagination, as the last thing i was listening to was Bowie, before i'd arrived at his house about 26 years before he lived there, so that was kind of surreal, but wasn't sure if it was anything other than a quirky coincidence
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I decided to return to 1944 next day, assuming my magic marbles would let me, and to return to the same time and place as i'd left, so to the loo.in the meantime, i had post op things to maintain. but if i could go back in time, spend several hours there, and yet only lose a few minutes of the present time, then i would certainly try again, and besides, i had taken quite a fancy to the lovely Josephine Eckles, with a K!
i searched through my coin collection, and took out most of the pre 1944's, so at least i'd have some money with me, and so next day, i got the marbles into my hand, and wished myself back to the toilet, with a somewhat wry expression on my face, i was thinking instead of toodledoo, i should be saying to the loo! i'm sure Doctor Who, wouldn't of made quite the same impact if his mode of transport was an old portaloo, instead of a police box!
Again, the rainbow of colours appeared, and i was back in the toilet in an instant, and presumed at the same time as i left, as could of been somewhat awkward if there'd been an occupant within! thankfully, all was good, and i returned to the bar, and Josephine, giving her the best smile i could muster. she looked relieved and smiled back. we then spent the next few days talking like old friends, or lovers, during which i would pop to the loo, disappear home for several hours to maintain everything. the strange magic of the marbles allowed me to spend 12 hours at a time in 1944, at a cost of only 12 minutes in 2019, so i was now bizarrely living a 36 hour day! none of which seemed possible. yet here i was travelling 75 years back in time, and falling in love with a wonderful woman, who was blissfully unaware of all of this, never mind that i had once the physical attributes of a man! and what were the chances of me, travelling back to 1944, and bumping into a lesbian? yet here we were, slowly, but surely, falling deeply in love with each other, all within a space of a few days!
But i was carrying a couple of major secrets inside my head, and could see no easy way to explain them to her, as i hadn't expected any of the events that had happened to happen, who could? This was the stuff of fiction, and in fiction, there is normally some kind of payback for stuff like this.
We started to go back to her flat, as the club, although it had a great atmosphere, was quite noisy at times, and we often couldn't hear ourselves speak. so we were now able to hear each others voices clearly. we talked about the war, and previous wars, and how pointless they all seemed. and of nature and all it's beauty, and of love, often reading our own poetry to one another. it felt like we were two lovers in a romantic novel. when the sun was shining we would go for walks mostly around Chelsea, and visit any tea rooms that were open, and pop back to the Gateway. and i noticed after just a few weeks, i wasn't getting stared at quite so much, probably because i was wearing longer dresses and had left my skirts behind in 2019! after all, this was the place until 1939, where they held an annual flower show. but there had been no bombs hitting Chelsea, since 1941. i googled this and discovered that within a few weeks, a V1 rocket was going to hit locally. so although i was in the throes of love, there were many things to ponder. and i think that Josephine was becoming more aware that something was troubling me, as she searched my eyes inquisitively. i had no choice but to tell her all, but how? without her thinking that one of us was mad, or had landed in some kind of parallel universe!
And so i started talking about science, and science fiction, and that i was intrigued by these, and that how much science had advanced in the last 75 years, and could she possibly imagine how much further it would of advanced in the next 75 years? and to my relief, she was fascinated by this, which led to all sorts of possibilities, with me having the upper hand in knowing how far we had actually advanced, although she thought i'd gone to far, when i suggested that men could land on the Moon within the next 25 years! she giggled and tickled me for teasing her. the very thought!
It was at this point, that i thought i best document everything, and that no matter what happened, i could at least publish this as a piece of fiction, and call it The Time Travelling Transgender, or something of that ilk, as who would believe it was actually real? Josephine had a great intelligence and awareness, and had in fact been one of a few that had been accepted on a University Degree course at Oxford, back in the early 1930's, and achieved her degree in Modern Languages and Medieval Literature, a massive achievement at a time that women had only just started to be allowed to vote, so were at last being treated as equals to their male counterparts, at least on paper. i had soon realised, i had met a highly intelligent, free thinking, independent woman, and the more we talked, the more we realised how many interests and views on a myriad of subjects, that we had in common.

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Over the next few days i brought up the subject of time travel and also on the possibilities of changing gender, all this was perfect food for her inquisitive mind. so i thought i'd concentrate initially on gender change, which for me was the easiest to explain, especially by then there was already at least one example that i could show her, which was that of a Danish woman called Lili Elbe, whos' transition took 4 operations over a 2 year period in Germany. it was the fourth one that proved fatal, as she'd tried to have a womb made for her. also her surgeon had to escape Germany, as amongst others, the nazis were after the then LGBT community. attitudes to the gay community in 1944 Britain weren't much better, as they could still face imprisonment, as things hadn't changed since Oscar Wilde had been imprisoned in Reading Gaol for two years, and prior to that, in 1827, my favourite author, Mary Shelley, had ably assisted Mary Diana Dods (who used the pseudonym of Walter Sholto Douglas) and her lover Isabella Robinson, to escape to Paris after they had married.
Josephine was intrigued by all of this, that an individual was able to change their gender, and that 117 years prior to 1944, that a lesbian couple had managed to marry. now all i had to do, was add the subject of time travel into the mix, with no evidence in existence!
I began by mentioning the most known piece of fiction at the time, which was The Time Machine by H.G. Wells circa 1895, and that prior to this, Mark Twain had written his own piece of time travel sci-fi " A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs' Court". and that there was also mention of time travel in ancient Hindu texts about a King Kakudmi. but that was about it, as i couldn't mention the mass of time travel that i'd read over the years, or watched on the telly, or seen at the cinema. or scientists, mostly disclaiming that it would ever be possible. so i found it was quite limiting on what i could tell her, and that one could mostly only theorise on the subject, but i said in a voice that one would expect from a mad scientist, " can you imagine!" so i let her ponder on that one.
It was funny to think that we'd only met in the last few weeks, yet it felt as though i'd known her for a lifetime, maybe the marbles held some other powers that possessed some other secret destiny, or maybe we were bewitched, or maybe i was simply getting fanciful,not unsurprising under the circumstances. we wandered around Chelsea, and window shopped, and laughed as we wandered, and wondered, as our hearts beat in unison with the Universe.
We returned to her flat, she made a pot of tea, and we sat down. and with an insightful twinkle in her now teary eyes, proceeded to tell me that she knew that there was something 'otherworldly' about me, and that life seemed now to be quite surreal, and that there was a special kind of magic behind our meeting, and that she believed it was our destiny. i felt my heart glow, and i'm sure it missed a beat, as the powerful force of love flowed through us both. she then asked me to tell her all. was i from the land of Fae? an alien from another world? a ghost? or someone from the future? and that whatever my answer was, that it wouldn't alter her feelings, and that she already had guessed that there was something 'different' about me, and this had become more obvious by the topic of conversations i had brought up.
I told her everything, how it had all started with the two marbles that had for years been collecting dust in a bowl with some other marbles. she then asked me had i always been a woman, as she had made sense of something she couldn't of even imagined just a few days earlier. i told her that 75 years from now, the procedure to change gender had advanced so much, that literally thousands of people were able to transition, with relative safety, especially compared to what Lili Elbe had gone through. she then kissed me, and said she was pleased that i was neither a ghost, nor an alien! and as we embraced she whispered "what happens now?" and i could feel her tremble, as soft gentle tears filled her beautiful eyes, and she told me she didn't want to lose me, and i told her i felt exactly the same,and that i'd be happy to spend the rest of my days with her back in time, or in 2019. i told her that Nazi Germany would soon come to an end, and that Europe would be free again. she seemed pleased at this. i told her that i had taken some things back to 2019, and that as long as i was touching them at the same time as the marbles, there hadn't been any difficulty. so i invited her on a quick day trip to 2019. she looked apprehensive, but also excited and nodded yes! i held her hand, and we were soon swallowed up in a rainbow of light.
years later, the time travelling came to an end, when i finally lost my marbles