Several years ago.... in the mists of time.... 'Kei te pēhea, Tim?' - Stella. A barista at Tim's favourite café.cafécafé
'Lousy. Got fired again.' - This is a younger, punker Tina, with facial hair and polyester bloomers..
Stella smiles her pixie smile. She's a fierce wee wahine: barely up to Tim's nipples when it comes to height. She clears a nearby table while he/she stares solemnly into their coffee.
'Why don't you come live with me and Brian?' 'I'm not some charity case. I've got the dole, and I've got my freedom.' 'Freedom camping, you mean! You'll never survive a winter in the bush!' - Stella laughs. 'That was three months ago. I'm in a boarding house now.' - Tina sips the coffee. 'How can you live in those places?' 'They're better than those posers up on the hill.' 'Yeah, I fucking hate academics.' 'Look, they let me get plastered and there's no vapid karens bugging me about my fashion sense.' 'Is it just fashion?' - Stella, making a dramatic camp gesture. 'Well, that's what I say so that they won't lynch me. I'm diagnosed as transgender.' 'We're open-minded. Nobody's going to bug you about your clothes.' - A few weeks later. Stella is redoing the lounge. Tina enters, and starts reading a book.
Half an hour later. They're still silent... nobody has said anything for a loooong time. Brian walks in. The air suddenly shifts... it's like he's caught them in the middle of a secret. 'What are you two doing?' 'Nothing' .... Brian seems placated. - 'I'm done' - Stella. Tina walks in. It seems much more spacious. She notices a new object. 'Is that a taiaha?' 'Yes. It's a gift from my whānau up in Te Tai Tokerau.'
Tina stares in wonder at this carved object. It certainly ties the room together. - Brian and Stella were both experienced dealers. Stella's family was torn apart by the drug war, and she had childhood memories of the police arresting her older sister when she was a teenager. Tina knew quite a few dealers, though she never really dealt much herself. The psychedelic fringe in Wellington is a great place to be different, and there's lots of fellow freaks and psychonauts that hang out together... crazy house parties in poor neighbourhoods. She was hesitant to flat with dealers, but, so far as she knew, both of them were clean by the time that she agreed to move into their two-bedroom flat. Brian was a lot bigger than Tina, and had muscles to boot. The two were never mates, but they were certainly civil to each other in the early going... - The Mt. Victoria flat had a majestic view of the city. Truly magical... the sun setting behind the hills was a beautiful sight. Tina took full advantage of the view, rehearsing her scales day after day. Stella and Tina both enjoyed yoga, and often discussed various dancing ideas.
Stella began to accompany Tina in their street performances. The cannabis referendum was happening, and it was an exciting time to be a dealer: finally, some optimism! Everyone that they knew wanted it to be legal. Everyone in the underworld in Wellington was basically on-board with that. - Unbeknownst to Tina, Brian and Stella had begun dealing again. They'd begun to fight, too, with piercing screams that cut through the building. The few times that Tina had joined them to sesh in their room, it had felt awkward, even though they seemed to get on fairly well. All those mournful love songs that Tina sang struck a chord in Stella. They would talk for hours about all sorts of random things... it was a bit like falling in love. Then Tina tripped out on acid, with Stella trip-sitting. That was a moment and a half.
- Stella and Tim began to share clothes, and were increasingly like girlfriends, though they never slept together.
However, Stella didn't like Tina as a name. She had other suggestions, but those were mostly boys names! So, she kept calling him 'Tim', even though she knew it annoyed him. That became clear when things fell apart. - Tina was having an identity crisis. All the slings from people saying that a crossdresser shouldn't advocate for cannabis reform, alongside people refusing to use her chosen name, was reaching a fever pitch. And Brian was really starting to piss her off. Fucking smug dickhead! Smarmy prick that thought he knew better than everyone. Borderline personality with a ferocious temper.
Then things melted down during a sesh. Brian chased Tina out of the flat in her pyjamas (that were borrowed from Stella), and she took refuge with a friend. Women's Refuge wouldn't accept her, even after Brian assaulted her and threatened to kill her the following morning. Suddenly, all the secrets that she'd shared with Stella were being thrust in her face as evidence that she was a sick freak. Tina learned a lesson from this: don't follow the lead of a girl that wants to make you over. Follow your own path, and never let people use your differences as a weapon! ✊🏻
