“Hey, I was thinking of maybe holding a little get-together when the weather warms up. You know, to catch up and all that? Mason has quite a few cousins his age to play with now. It could be fun.”

“Like a party? Can Uncle Beau come? He’s funny!”

“You speak of this ‘Bow’ hooman. I know of him. The monster who dares to reject my benevolence! Bring him to me, my servants, and you will have as many mice and birds you can eat!”

“It was great talking with you, Mr. Thomas.”

“Any time! I’m gonna recommend to your mother a Dr. Pascal Curious, but feel free to suggest him too, only if you feel comfortable, that is. He’s a trained professional who works at the hospital downtown, and he helped me out a lot when I was younger. He knows a lot more answers than most people do, even more than me, heheh.”

“That sounds neat! Thanks!”

“So you mean this dysphoria thing, it can go unnoticed? For years?”

“Uh-huh. Dysphoria doesn’t care how long it hides, just as long as it can make you feel like garbage, you know?”

“But I want to know… Why me? Why do I have to be the one to feel like this? It doesn’t seem fair. It just… It just doesn’t make sense to me.”

“That, I’m afraid, is gonna take a long time for anyone to find out.”

“… And so my mom just keeps telling me about kids who knew what was going on with them from the start, but I didn’t know a thing. How was I supposed to know, though? I mean, I felt something was off, but I just thought it was because I was ugly and I hated everyone.”

“I just… I just wonder if maybe I’m crazy or something. I felt worse after becoming a teen, but I really did think I was going to get better. But I mean, I wore dresses when my mom told me to, so I guess… I don’t know.”

“Hey, you don’t have to have known right away. When we’re born, no one comes into the room to tell us the meaning behind everything we’ll feel. Some people just figure things out faster than others. It’s not exclusive to dysphoria, either, sometimes it takes more time to notice things like depression, or heck, even the flu.”

“Are you serious? But my mom said…”

“My mom said a lot of things, too. Some things are just better to learn ourselves.”

“That makes sense. Wow.”