I have a loved one that’s been transitioning in fits and starts for a long time, and this story really struck a chord with me. The last line is a doozy.

After you stepped over a threshold on the other side of the world, triggering the ding of the barber’s unseen bell. After you watched her rope your long hair into a braid and you didn’t cry; loop her fingers through scissors and you didn’t cry; sever that braid and you didn’t cry, and you weren’t yet taking testosterone so that wasn’t the reason you didn’t cry.

I’m not ashamed to say the story sure made me cry. It’s included in this anthology that I’m absolutely ordering. Also, I didn’t realize that Marzano-Lesnevich wrote the outanding The Fact of a Body. Turns out I was already a huge fan.