Ahh, her plane's in and she'll be coming off the jetway soon. I hadn't seen her in a couple of years, but her hitch is done and she'll be home again. There weren't too many in uniform coming though. Maybe she missed the flight.
"Hey Dad, over here!"
I turned towards the voice to see an attractive young lady in a white flowery dress and her hair down.
"Penny, is that you? I was looking for a soldier."
"Yeah Dad, it's me, let's get out of here and we'll talk later."
"OK, sure, let's go get your baggage."
"Nope, this is it. Got all my papers in here and just this one carry on."
"Where's all you gear? Having it shipped?"
"Nope, this is it, I left all that crap behind, now let's get home."
Four years in the service and all my daughter has is one bag and a briefcase. There must be a story but she doesn't seem to want to talk right now.
In the car on the way home for the airport she began to open up.
"You didn't even recognize your own daughter back there?"
"I might have, but like I said, I was looking for a soldier in uniform, not a lady in a spring dress"
"I hated that shit Dad. I hated every minute of it. When I out-processed I swore I'd never wear pants again. I left all my gear in the barracks and had a friend drive me into town on the way to the airport. I bought this one dress and these shoes, changed in the dressing room and left the rest there. Right now, this is pretty much all I own that still fits."
She looked a lot more trim than where she left so she maybe lost weight too and was afraid her old clothes wouldn't fit very well.
"You've got a whole closet of stuff at home."
"Dad, I just want to get home and rest a bit, then see a couple of friends tomorrow. We'll talk later. And if you've got one of those damned parades and parties waiting, take me somewhere else for the night so I don't have to deal with it."
"No, we don't. Just some family."
Over the next few days she told us that she hadn't had a good time at all and got out as soon as she could. She really had nothing good to say about the last four years. We also found most of old clothes set out for a charity or the trash. She told us that she didn't like all the tomboy stuff any more. We also noticed she was always in a dress or skirt outfit now.
Finally one night a couple of weeks later, she seemed to be feeling better.
"Look, it's like this. I dressed like a guy my whole life. I always wore pants and loose shirts. Then four years of crap clothes that itched and scratched all day. No more. I decided I wanted to be a girl for a while for the first time in my life."
Her mother and I had noticed that she'd turned into a rather attractive young lady. She carried herself different and acted more confident. As a tomboy, we kind of felt she missed out on a lot of things, but she never seemed to care about girly stuff.
"I've spending a lot of time with Heather and Trudy and they've been helping me catch up with shit like fashion and style that I never cared about. They've been helping me with other stuff too."
Interrupted by the doorbell, she jumped and grabbed her purse, something she'd never carried before.
"That's them now, I gotta go. Might be home late."
Heather and Trudy stepped in for a minute and said hello to us. Very attractive ladies themselves dressed like most other girls in their early twenties, but with far better manners. We knew them both and their parents and knew our Penney was in good hands. In fact, we knew them MUCH better than Penney did.
My wife chimed in, "Take care of her girls, we'll see you later." and we waved them off.
"Do you think she knows?" her mother asked me.
"I don't know. We just have to let things ride for a while."
Yes, there was a secret we weren't sure we wanted her to know.
We couldn't help but notice other changes though. Our little tomboy had grown up to be a very delightful young lady indeed. Hair and makeup always done and her nails were perfect. The way she talked was changing too, The soldier cussing was fading away. And those dresses, well, we and a lot of other people started noticing how she filled them out and how her legs looked as she walked.
Summer was beginning to break though and we set out the patio furniture one day. As we were relaxing, Penney came out of the house in one of the skimpiest swimsuits I'd ever seen. I nudged her mother's arm to take a look.
"Oh, my! Penney?"
"Yes Mom, what do you think? Is it too much?"
"No, it 's definitely not too much," I interjected.
"Should I go change? I bought a couple of others."
"No, it's fine, we just didn't think out little tomboy would fit in something like that."
"Yea, well the tomboy's gone for good."
I didn't mind trading a tomboy for a bikini model.
With our daughter out of ear shot, my wife chided me, "Pete, stop looking at your daughter like that you dirty old man!"
"This has to be the doing of the girls."
"Yes, I'm sure it is, but you know the rules. She has to bring it up."
We watched as she applied tanning lotion and I told my wife we had to go inside for a while.
"Did our daughter get you all worked up like this?"
"Yeah and none of the girls are here to take care of it, so I guess it's up to the old married couple to deal with it."
The next hour or so was spent in the bedroom.