Changing Roles - 2017

Lydia looked at her husband with disgust. Drunk! Again!

Donald "Don" Chalmers lay on the floor of their many bedroomed mansion, snoring nosily. A pool of vomit stagnated nearby.

Lydia looked at him in despair. Her husband had once been one of the most handsome men she had ever known. In his prime he had starred in a sitcom that had made him a household name and had made him his millions. But now he was just an out of work actor and a drunk, quickly dissipating the fortune that he had made.

Lydia reflected that his fall from stardom had been his own fault. Don had failed to move with the times. Once the sitcom had ended after a record run of twelve seasons, Don had had his pick of roles but had turned them all down. That had been because all of the roles offered to him had been, in his own words "women's roles".

But with the rapid changes that had taken place in society over the last fifty years, and which had been greatly accelerated since the turn of the present century, women had gained ascendancy in all areas of society, including the entertainment business. Most men now wore skirts and high heels at the insistence of their more dominant partners and kept house as their mothers and grandmothers had once had to do.

In keeping with the new society that had emerged, women wanted to see more actresses in more traditionally male roles and that meant that male actors would have to play the more traditionally feminine roles. In Romeo and Juliet, for example, the female actor was Juliet in name but played Romeo's role. Romeo had to wear a dress and do the balcony scene as Juliet would have had to to.

Don had refused to wear a skirt and would absolutely not play anything he felt was a "woman's role" and had been out of work ever since. At the rate he was spending their money, they would be flat broke before long, but Lydia had a son and she had plans for him.

Lydia thought of her son. Her son, since Don had never taken any interest in him, especially now that he was consumed with self-pity and hell bent on a course to oblivion. Stevie was not at home. He was at his ballet class. But Lydia could bring him into her mind in a instant. A small, slender boy, short for a boy of his age. He was also pretty, with his heart shaped creamy face and his curly blonde hair and deep sapphire blue eyes. He was the most beautiful -and feminine - child Lydia had laid eyes on.

Stevie, for that was the boy's name, not only looked feminine. He was feminine to the core of his being. Boys nowadays were being feminised from birth, but in Stevie's case he had been interested in his mother's dresses since he was a toddler and it had taken remarkably little effort to get him to wear skirts full time. Lydia had read with amusement articles about boys who rebelled against being made to be feminine, but Stevie had not only not resisted being dressed in dresses and pretty underwear, he had welcomed it.

Lydia thanked her lucky stars for such a son. He would fit in perfectly in this woman's world, unlike his dinosaur of a father, and he would pick up from where his father had left off. He would become an actor and make Lydia a fortune. Lydia herself had never worked and did not have the qualifications or experience. She knew she had no talent herself as an actor and was besides too old now to embark on a new career. Don had always kept her but would soon be no longer able to. Lydia had resolved to help her son in his career. He went to acting classes, ballet school, tap and dance school, had piano lessons and was a contestant in beauty pageants, many of which he won, for he was a pretty child.

Two years later, Lydia and Stevie were living in an apartment. The mansion had long ago been sold in order to pay for Don's residency and treatment in a drying out clinic that took care of washed up, drunk stars. Don was so depressed and wallowing in self-pity that he did not even notice how few times his wife and son came to see him.

Lydia was excited at the progress of her son's career. Stevie was only aged eleven but he had graduated with high honours from acting school. He was already a seasoned actor, could dance well and was a talented pianist. His regular academic studies weren't going so well, but Lydia knew her son would do well enough without formal academic qualifications, and anyway, everyone knew that boys didn't do so well as girls when it came to schoolwork.

From small parts in children's TV shows, Stevie had landed a role as a regular sitcom, Corney High, based around a school. He had played a boyfriend of one of the main characters. His character, Lance, had been a complete airhead. Obssessed with his appearance, with pretty clothes, make up and girls, he had been the perfect ornament to his soccer captain, exam-acing girlfriend. Lance appeared at formals perfectly dressed in a prom gown and flawlessly made up and every utterance he made made him look as dim as a ten watt lightbulb, but it was a regular part and paid well. Stevie even seemed to enjoy playing an airhead boy, especially when he got to wear pretty dresses.

That role had lasted two years before nice but dim Lance perished in a boating accident. Stevie had played the helpless boy, slowly drowning, to perfection, whimpering pathetically for his girlfriend to rescue him before falling silent for all eternity. The scene had ended with a view of Lance's body, clad in two piece pink swimsuit, bobbing up and down in the lake.

Stevie had then appeared in several plays and in caberet, kicking his stockinged legs high as a chorus boy, dressed in a sequined blue leotard and headress to the delight of the mainly female audience.

Lydia was now on the set of a movie - a movie!- in which her son was appearing, watching the scene currently being shot.

Bond leapt from a moving speedboat and landed perfectly on a wooden bridge. Two goons, dressed in black, moved menacingly to intercept the British secret agent. Bond executed perfect kicks and punches to render the goons unconscious within a few moments. Bond raced into a building and came under fire from more goons in inside. Bond withdrew a Walther PPK and efficiently shot each and every goon stone dead within a few minutes. Bond moved into the centre of the room, which contained a leather chair, rather like a dentist's chair, upon which was tied a boy in a blue evening gown, cut to the waist to expose the boy's slender and hairless legs, matching stilettos. The boy wore a diamond necklace around his throat and his features were perfectly made up to make him look beautiful. The boy's fine long blonde hair had been straightened and arranged in a bun.

Bond approached the boy and untied him. The boy's eyes, framed by eyeliner and a deep blue eyeshadow, fluttered open and the boy gave a frightened gasp. He allowed Bond to help him off the chair, a difficult accomplishment in a gown and heels at the best of times. Once off the chair, Bond scooped the boy up, the boy's long legs that seemed to go on forever, on full show. The boy lay in Bond's arms helpless and vulnerable.

Bond was chilled to hear the voice of a nemesis, Baroness Treblinski, the diabolical woman who was threatening to take over the world's energy supply and who had started by kidnapping the son of the world's wealthiest oil billionairess and holding him to ransom in exchange for his mother's oil companies. Treblinski had arrived from above, by means of sliding down ropes, and accompanied by several goons. Chewing on a cigar and pointing a pistol directly at Bond, she said in a thick Russian accent, "How good of you to drop in, Miss Bond". Bond looked around anxiously for a way out. There didn't seem to be one.

"And....cut!" came the voice of Antonia Cross, world famous director "Great scene and did it all in one take! Ok, take a break. We'll do the next scene in ten" she exulted. Miss Bond, aka top actress Laura Hart, lowered Stevie to the ground and gave him a kiss on the head "Good kid" she said, stroking his hair "

Watching, Lydia was exultant. Her beautiful son was well on his way to stardom!