The Voice

“Hello?”

“Hi Susan, it’s Lindsay,” I said into the phone. “We were wondering if Jenny might like to come over and play for a little while.”

There was a confused pause and then a loud exhalation into the phone.

“Susan?” I asked.

“I’ll get my mom,” she answered.

Oops. I realized in that moment that she was a he. And he was Susan’s ten-year-old son.

What can I say? On the phone, at least, he sounded exactly like Susan.

I covered the receiver while Joey went to look for his mom. “Oh no!” I whispered to my husband. “That was actually Joey on the phone!”

“Niiice,” my husband said, chuckling.

In a few moments, Susan answered and I managed to keep my giggles at bay as we arranged an impromptu playdate. I didn’t mention what had happened with Joey, but I had no doubt it was still on his mind. The memories had all come rushing back the moment I heard his exaggerated sigh.

I vividly recall a few years growing up when adults would call our home and think my older brother was my mom. Oh, the mortification! The shame! To a boy right on the verge of The Changing of the Voice, there’s not much more humiliating than being mistaken for your mother.

GAH.

“Do you remember that happening when you were a kid?” I asked Hubs after I’d hung up with Susan. “Because I remember when that would happen to my brother, and it was a VERY BIG DEAL. There was a lot of angst afterward. A lot of accusations.”

“Of course I remember it,” Hubs said. “It was awful! So embarrassing!”

I looked over at Bruiser, innocently playing with his Batman set, and thought about what was to come– It’s yet another piece in the puzzle of raising a boy that I hadn’t considered up until that moment. Being mistaken for a woman at a time when that seems like the worst, most humiliating thing that could possibly ever happen to you…

I giggled again. I couldn’t help it.

It’s going to be hilarious.