Blog Love Omega Glee: Chris And Chris (28 February 2012)

Chris was born a boy but wanted to be a girl. When Chris was a man, he became a woman. Meanwhile, in another city, Chris was born a girl but wanted to be a boy. When Chris was a woman, she became a man. Years later, the two Chrises met, fell in love, and got married. Now, they're just your average heterosexual married couple, or maybe your average reverse birth certificate assigned gender homosexual married couple. Whatever. The judge who signed the marriage license couldn't figure it out either but since they had opposite sexes on their state-issued papers, and there was a bride and a groom in front of her, the judge signed the license. But what the judge thinks doesn't matter anyway. They're in love. That's the only category we need stuff them into. However, because society often feels the need to identify and tag us before releasing people into its wilds, they suffer some discrimination, particularly at such societal gatekeeping functions as job interviews. So maybe their jobs aren't as good as they would be if certain narrowminded people they encountered along the way weren't worried so much about a worker's appearance in comparison to what they should be worried about: How well he, she, or he/she does the job. Therefore, to save a little money, Chris and Chris move into a little one-bedroom apartment near Believer Square. One side of Believer Square is a little cheaper than the other so they move there, but they soon discovered that what one doesn't pay in cash, one will pay in some other form. One of the Chrises, the male, relates their story to Francine in Purgatory this afternoon: "So, when we first moved here, we moved on the other side of the Square. We were all in love, and giggly, and typical newlyweds, so I don't think we were paying much attention. We found a nice apartment in one of those nice old apartment buildings and it was cheaper than the ones we saw on the other side of the Square so we took it. It wasn't until we were moving in that we realized we were the only white people on the block. It was bizarre. It's the 21st century but there's a color line that runs through the Square. On this side, it's all mixed and multicultural, but on the other side it's all black. I said to Chris, 'Are we in 1950s Mississippi? What's up with the segregation?' In any case, everybody was real nice so we didn't worry about it. It was just odd, you know? You'd see white people around during the day like people fixing up the apartments, but none of them lived in the neighborhood. Speaking of fixing up, the apartment was being fixed up when we saw it, but the landlord assured us that it'd be ready by the time we moved in. Well, that didn't happen. The day we moved in, the toilet was in the living room. They were putting in a new one and it hadn't been installed yet. I don't know about you, but I can live without a lot of things, but one thing I can't live without is a toilet. So I call up the landlord, this, this vile little man named Lee Alberman, and he barely has time to talk with me. He was all charming before we signed the lease. Now he just gives me the phone number of the property manager, this middle-aged woman named Joanne, who's very nice but very overworked. She comes over a couple hours later and says they can't fix it today because the maintenance guy, Frank, didn't show up for work, but she'll open up another of the vacant apartments on the floor and we can use their toilet until Frank can install ours. So we had a party that first night and had a few friends over and we took pictures of everybody sitting on the toilet in the middle of the living room. They're really funny. I'll show them to you sometime. In any case, going to the bathroom down the hall in another apartment was a little annoying, but at least we didn't have to use an outhouse. It took them a few days, but Frank finally showed up and installed the toilet. I've never been so happy to see a toilet in a bathroom as I was when I saw our toilet installed! That first flush made me flushed in the face with happiness. Oh, look at the time, I have to go. I'll tell you the next part of the story next time I see you."

Blog Love Omega Glee is a novel by Wred Fright about two bloggers who fall in love while the world falls apart, which is being serialized on his blog. To start reading from the beginning or read another installment, please visit Blog Love Omega Glee Central on WredFright.Com. If you like what you've read, or you've read all of Blog Love Omega Glee and want more Fright, then please read his first novel, which is available in print and as an ebook.