A few days after the conversation in the car, I found [Emma’s older sister] Hannah alone in her room and asked her again what was going on with Emma. She hesitated at first, but finally came out with it.
“Emma is transgender,” she said matter-of-factly.
“What does that mean?” I had heard the term, but never thought much about it.
“Emma is a boy,” Hannah said.
“But Emma’s a girl. She can’t be a boy,” I said. It sounded ridiculous.
“She feels like she was supposed to be a boy instead of a girl.”
I will take comments on this submitted by email only to KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.