and quickly changed "Amanda is an employee of Sex-Change Salons" to "Amanda is an owner of Sex-Change Salons."
"Business is good, isn't it, partner?" whispered Jenn as she was escorting the latest customer to the changing table, a straight guy who had unaccountably fallen in mutual love with another straight guy. They had flipped a coin to see who would make the big change, and Joe, soon to be Jo, wasn't sure if he had won or lost.
"Mom--I can still call you Mom, right?"
"Of course, I'm still your mother" answered John in a pleasant baritone.
"Why? I never got the impression you were unhappy being female."
"I was, though, I just concealed it because I didn't want it to affect you. Do you know what it's like for someone like me, an engineering professor, to live in a female body? Because that is one shit job of engineering! How often do you use boobs? A few years at the most, and a lot of women don't have kids and don't use them at all! But they carry them around every day of your life from puberty to death, playing hell with the back! And periods, don't get me started! Other animals don't have them, but women go through this crap every month for decades! And having to get practically undressed every time you need to piss! And the lesser strength, like it would have been some huge problem to give women the same strength as men! Once you were established with your own business, I kjnew my job as Mom was basically over, and I was moving into a better-built house!"
"But, but women live longer."
"Yeah, that's the one argument. But I'd rather spend a few less years in a well-designed body than a few more years in a kludge!"