Emilia was walking around the square, at that moment she met Alberto.
"How are you? Enjoying the celebration?" Alberto asked.
"You know not Alberto, even if at times I forget who I am, society does not hesitate to remind me" she said.
She wanted to cry and she told Alberto with tears in her eyes: "Albert, I will never be a woman again"
Alberto looked at her with an angry look: "Are you a woman or not?"
"I was once" she said "being a woman is not something you want, it is something you are, and if you are not, there is no way to be".
Alberto looked at her as if she had said a truth that she did not understand.
"Exactly, being a woman is not something you choose. But neither you nor I choose to be, right? We just are, right Emilia?"
Emilia was silent for a few seconds and then spoke: "What did you call me?"
Alberto stared at her with a look of sadness and said: "Emilia, you are a bad person, but you don't stop being a person, you and I were different, but now we are the same, I think I can help a colleague of mine"
Alberto looked at her and said:
"In this world things are not always fair, I was born with the body of a man, but my mind was that of a woman; I hated every time they treated me like a boy, then in adolescence, I hated my face, I hated my penis, I hated my voice, I hated being different from other women, and I hated not having that thing between my legs that people commonly call 'femininity', as if not having it was something that nullifies my femininity Until a few weeks ago you and I were very different, you had been raised as a woman, our lives were neither easier nor more difficult, they were just different. I was forbidden to be feminine, I had to impose masculinity on myself by force , begging the universe every night to be a cis girl. But it never happened. What did happen was that I became more and more masculine, soon I could no longer wear the clothes that I got to wear secretly. Deep down I myself believed that I was just sick for wanting to use it, I wanted things to change . While this was happening, you spent it defending that sex was unalterable, according to you by biology. And yet ..."
Alberto paused and continued "I don't want you to go through the same thing; If I can help you to be free, I will do it, Emilia, you are not less of a woman because you have a penis, you are not less of a woman because you do not fit into the stereotypes that society has that it is 'a woman', Be free Emilia, maybe we haven't born in the same condition, but now we are on the same path, if you want my help, you will have it, but take away those ideas, because now they are the ones that harm yourself "said Alberto ending his speech.
Emilia looked at him and said: "I can't, I don't want to live a fantasy"
"Ours is not a fantasy, gender is not something that you choose or that depends on your environment, nobody can force you to be what you are not, the best thing for you is to live as what you are, and people should not have problems with that, if they are not trans they will not become trans to see us, who the hell wanted to live this life? but, if they are trans, they can get support with us. Yours is not a fantasy "
Emilia then interrupted him, "So why haven't you come out of the closet ?!"
"I'm afraid"
"And you want me to do it?"
"Do what makes you happy"
"And why don't you do it?"
"Maybe I won't, but I don't stop others from doing what makes them happy."
"Admit it Alberto, we are not women, neither you nor me"
"Maybe, but I won't tolerate you talking to other trans women like that, you can say what you want about me, but don't mess with the others"
"Albert, I ... I can't"
"Well, me neither"
"What are we going to do? I would like to be a normal woman" said Emilia.
"Well, me too" said Alberto "Look, I won't force you to come out of the closet, but if you want, I can treat you like a woman in private, and use your feminine name and pronoun, okay?"
"Would you do it?"
"Sure, it's what we have to do between ourselves"
"'You know I'm not treating you like a woman, right?" Emilia said.
"No problem, I don't want to get used to it" he said "But do it with the rest of trans women" said Alberto.
"I'll try to do it" said Emilia.
"It's fine. But let's not talk about that anymore, tell me what you like to do" said Alberto.
"Only if you tell me your life" said Emilia.
"Well listen; I was born in this state, when I was little, my mother and father constantly scold me for having 'feminine' behaviors, I was always interested in wearing women's clothing, but I began to repress myself when they constantly harassed me for That. Night after night I wanted to wake up being a biological girl. Over time I gave up, I started to cry when I realized certain things, how I could never be a mother, how I would never be 'a real woman'. to pretend to be an exemplary man, I dressed daily in a suit, and entered the military academy at age 14, for everyone I was a model man, but deep down, Alberto was just a performance of my soul trying to pretend to be a man, a mask that I couldn't take off. I started having strange dreams when I was 15 years old, I dreamed of peace, and I realized what the future would be like, but I also saw many things, alternate realities. I saw many trans women, and I realized that I could not see them as anything other than women, I also met trans boys, whom I could not see as anything other than men. Not because of their appearance, I couldn't say, but if they said they were women, to me they were women, and if they said they were men, to me they were men. Then I saw people like you, people who attacked those women and men. Sometimes during my dreams, voices told me things, once they told me that one of you was going to learn a lesson, I think you already know the rest of the story "
Alberto was silent for a few seconds.
Then he said:
"My life is nothing more than the desire of a woman and the life of a false man"
Poetic.