BEING BERNICE

 

A MASKING EXPERIENCE STORY

 

 

 

 

By: Rita Chante

 

Author’s Notes: Female maskers aren’t born with instinctual knowledge of how to mask effectively of where to get the items that allows for successful female masking.  In this copyrighted short story, Pat Escobar’s cross-dressing desires help him to stumble into the world of female masking and to get his wife to join him there.

 

 

Pat Escobar was a normal looking but relatively slender six-foot four-inch tall man that had a passion for woman’s clothing.  One of the reasons he had married Bernice, was that at five, eleven and 210 pounds, her loser fitting clothes almost fit him.  If she wore here six-inch high platform boots, his clothes fit her very well.  They were just a little tight around the breast and ass, as well as a little loose around the waist.  Bernice Escobar was so comfortable in Pat’s clothes, that he was fond of saying that the only clothes in the closet that were really all his were his hiking boots.  Bernice even wore his underwear and socks when hers were in the laundry, or “she just wanted to be comfortable”.  When he couldn’t find one of his hats he looked for it and found it in Bernice’s closet.  Pat felt it was unfair that she was quite literally into all of his things, but she considered it weird that he wanted to be in any of hers.

Then the Roaman’s Catalogue came.  Pat found that a size 26 in the woman’s category fit him perfectly if he wore padded underwear and an “E” cup bra with doubled up breast forms from Frederick’s of Hollywood.  From then on, if he saw something he thought would look good on Bernice in a size twenty, he would buy it for her and the same outfit for himself in a size 26.  Since Bernice had orders from Roaman’s on their charge card, and Pat took care of paying the cards off each month, she didn’t give the Roaman’s bill entry on their Visa Card a second look, let alone question the amount. 

The same thing happened when Pat discovered that he could shop on line in the women’s department at Macy’s, Victoria’s Secret, Spiegel’s, Newport News, and Jessica London.  Pat Escobar also found that size thirteen shoes and size fourteen boots at How Kool Shoes fit him when he was wearing nylons.  From then on, when he bought a pair of boots or shoes for Bernice in size ten he would doubled the order and buy a pair of size thirteen or fourteen for him.  When Bernice questioned the How Kool entries on the credit card, Pat Escobar simply said that he had bought some birthday presents or Christmas presents for her on that site.  And, when he gave her the items on those occasions, any protest that Bernice had, about Pat’s online shopping ceased. 

In the privacy of their bedroom, Pat would try on these clothes when he got home earlier than Bernice or she went off to visit with her mother or one of her sisters.  He loved the feel of the materials that are used to make feminine clothing.  The lightness and sheerness of the garments excited him.  If he mimicked Bernice’s moves the clothes rubbed his skin in a most delightful way.  But seeing a male face in the wall mirror on what appeared to be a tall version of Bernice’s body felt totally weird to Pat. 

From the Bloomingdale’s catalogue Pat Escobar purchased a duplicate makeup gift set he had bought for Bernice the previous Christmas, but putting on a duplication of Bernice’s make up, just made him feel like a bearded lady, even after his closest shave.  What is more, his strong male jaw line made him an ugly looking female in Pat’s eyes.  Besides the shaving and the application of the makeup, not to mention getting it off, cut away into the time he had to wear the wonder female fashions outfits and coats from Roaman’s.

To compensate for this he started pulling some of Bernice’s black opaque panty hose over his head.  This immediately blocked out his features and added mystery to the cross-dressing.  His favorite hose were Bernice’s soiled ones.  His wife’s aroma aroused both his feminine and masculine sides.  To top off the fragrant panty hose, Pat put on one of Bernice’s wigs.  To this end, he had encouraged Bernice to get several styles and lengths in a variety of different colors.

Bernice enjoyed how Pat was so generous in supplying her wardrobe and accessories.  She noticed that all she had to do in order to get outfits from the Roaman’s Catalogue was dog-ear the pages and circle the item numbers.  Pat Escobar wasn’t even bashful about ordering her negligee and sleepwear.  He was also so good about hanging her things in their dressing area, and always knew where her latest outfit was located if she couldn’t find it.

As Pat’s proficiency of transforming himself progressed, he began to want to alter the profile of his face the same way he had altered the profile of his body.  While the stockings distorted and flatten his features, they made him look like a super villainess that was dressing to rob a bank.  He saw some plastic masks in the Oriental Trading catalogue and sent away for them.  When they came, he couldn’t wait for his next private moment to try them on.  They created a different look, but not the natural look he desired.  He softened the hard plastic mask look by pulling transparent pantyhose over them.  In dim light they achieved an exotic look, but they were hard to see through and the pressure of the sock on the plastic mask made it cut into his face.

The next step in Pat Escobar’s quest was the use of female half masks.  The draw back for these masks was that his neck showed.  No matter how he shaved, he couldn’t stretch the skin tight enough to eliminate the stubble.  He also had to put a nylon stocking over his head to give the wig something to anchor to.  Between the nylon and the rubber bands to hold the mask on, he could only wear the half mask for a short time before pressure of all the constricting items gave him a major headache.  He also found the eyeholes never seem to fit quite right.  In addition, if one of the rubber bands broke they would tangle in his hair or whip one of his ears.  He even experimented with sewing Velcro strips instead of elastic bands on the half masks.  This lessened the pressure on his face, but these often got fouled in the wigs.  However, as a face, topped by one of Bernice’s wigs and a pair of her oversized sunglasses tied onto his head, they were the closest to his goal of a seemly natural male to female transformation as he had gotten to thus far.

In discussing his mask wearing alternatives with a clerk at the local theatrical supply shop, he learned about the “full head” concept.  Full heads eliminated the need for the rubber bands, Velcro, and the nylon stockings.  Often the face fit better and they were easier to put on and take off than the half mask.  But, there was no denying the fact that they were hotter to wear.  Even with this draw back, the idea seemed well based, so he bought full head rubber and latex masks of well-known personalities like Hillary Clinton, Whoopie Goldberg, Madonna, Barbara Streisand and Lady Di.  But these “character masks” often had ridiculous expressions that took away from the “normal” effect he was trying to achieve.

Of course, if he were to wear one of these in public, everyone but the thickest of individuals would know that he was masking.  He wanted the look to be so natural, that he would be able to go to the supermarket in his Roaman’s jogging outfit and everyone would think he was just a really big woman.  His ideal was to appear as a slightly larger version of Bernice.

He began to search the net for women’s masks, but just came up with the usual Halloween mask stuff of witches and old hags.  Often when he found a woman’s mask, it was a site showing people wearing them but they weren’t for sale.  He also found several sites that had good masks from Japan or Europe, but because of language barriers they didn’t respond to his Email, and when they did, the shipping costs for an item that was unreturnable and might not fit, were prohibitive.

Pat considered and reconsidered making his own masks, but gave up on that idea.  His was a world of number crunching.  He liked the field of accounting because he didn’t have to be creative.  In fact, he always warned his staff that being creative with the numbers they worked with all day was considered illegal.

Mask making, as he understood it, looked like an artistic, creative skill.  In addition, he didn’t have a workshop or a private closet for making masks, like the ones he had seen described in the Transformation Stories Archive.  If he rented a room or a garage some place to do his mask making, how would he hide the cost of such an effort from Bernice?  She controlled the purse strings of the family tighter than a trainer working out a dog in obedience school.  The only funds she didn’t know about were some of the under the table cash transactions of his tax preparation clients.  But, even with that money, if he did the mask making in their basement, how would he explain what he was doing to Bernice?  She would scoff him or discount him as “strange”.  The only way to stay in the closet was to somehow keep his masking activities blended in with her things, the way he blended in his outfits with hers in their dressing area.

He had all but given up his Internet search when he tried a link off a Fortune City site called, “Chante’s Masked World of Fiction and Fantasy”.  The link was for “Maskon.com.”  Bonanza at last.  Both Marti and Kerry sold masks.  Kerry actually made hers.  He ordered two full heads from Kerry.  The two models he ordered were labeled “Emerrald” and “Sheila”.  Pat Escobar had the two heads delivered to his work address.  Kerry was very discrete on how she marked her boxes, so that all his secretary knew was that he had received a confidential item.

The “Sheila” mask fit his face the best, but he felt that the “Emerrald” looked the best.  With a pair of over size sunglasses to take away from the wide open eyed staring of the painted blue eyes, he finally achieved the natural female appearance that he had desired for so long.  Pat could walk in his neighborhood and passers by would wave at him in the same fashion they waved when he wasn’t wearing a mask.

This gratifying success convinced him that the money he earned from the next two side jobs, would be used to order a torso from Kerry.  He also looked into the purchase of a digital camera to make photos and share them in the galleries of     “Maskon.com.”

Pat hoped if he could put a whole masking package together and surprise Bernice, he would be able to get her to walk with him in some of their matching outfits.  Bernice had always liked being dressed as “twins” with Pat.  She loved to wear her platform boots so that she could wear clothes like his and they would be male and female twins.  Dressing like this in public, especially on vacation or at a formal party was something she planned for.

Bernice even had gone to President Tuxedo and had a tuxedo exactly like Pat’s tailored to fit her.  She had a black, short pageboy wig and a pair of seven- inch platform, shin high patent leather boots that she wore with the tuxedo.  The pants were long enough to cover all but the very bottom of the boots.  Bernice had convinced Pat to dress in their matching tuxedos for New Years.  To his surprise, she had looked fantastic in her tuxedo and black pageboy wig.  They had been the hit of the ball at the Hyatt.  Bernice hoped that she would be able to wear the tuxedo again to some of the formal family functions and next year’s New Year’s Ball as well.

Yet while Bernice Escobar truly enjoyed cross-dressing in this manner, she still couldn’t understand why Pat wanted to wear her clothes.  In her opinion, men had all the really neat outfits, anyway.  When she wore his clothes or outfits that copied his in her size, she felt closer to him.  She was positive that this couldn’t be what was Pat’s motivation even though she had used her cross-dressing rationale to get Pat to pay for her copy of his tuxedo.

Knowing all this, Pat Escobar still wanted to share his feelings about his cross-dressing with his wife.  But after all due deliberation on this topic, he found his mind asking him; how could he explain to her without sounding like her definition of a pervert that he felt about some of her clothing the way she felt about the tuxedo?  On several occasions he tried to work his position into the conversation, but Bernice would start discounting the idea faster than he could present and defend it.  He finally decided that he had to find and try some other strategy.

The masked fiction at Marti’s and Kerry’s Maskon site had some good ideas, but most of the masking premises didn’t work out with any of the scenarios Pat Escobar could envision doing with Bernice.  He had to find a very practical and relatively simple solution to implement his fantasies.  He didn’t have access to the “magic medallions” or the “Alien technology” that some of the spell type stories and fantasies always seemed to find so conveniently to complete the instant and miraculous female transformations.

Pat finally hit upon the idea that maybe he could combine parts of several ideas from the stories to come up with a plan to enact his fantasies and somehow hook his loving wife, Bernice, into seeing his position in a favorable light. Because of Bernice’s overstated resistance, he knew that this was going to take some doing.  For the next three months he read every masking story he could locate.

In Chante’s story of “Masking Anniversaries” he was intrigued by the masked reversal of a couple.   The reluctant partner was tricked into wearing a full head and torso that was “locked on”, while locked in a compartment of a moving train.  Ghostly Writer’s ideas in “Beneath the Vail” gave him some ideas on place and baiting activities.  Vicky Moc’s idea of “The Favor” also set his imagination on fire.  Once again the recipient became involved in the fantasy and went beyond the original idea of the originator of the masking act.

For bait, Pat would use the lure of a diamond ring at Zale’s that Bernice was campaigning for.  Every time they were in the mall, she would find an excuse, like getting his ring or watch cleaned, to maneuver him into the store and ask him if he thought it was a “good buy”, or if it would look “nice” on her.  Maybe a gift certificate showing that he started buying it would make her want to do a “favor” for him.  

If that part of the plan worked, then he would let it slip by leaving a note by the phone about presenting her with the ring on a masked Gambler’s Special train to Reno.  They had taken that train a few years back on Halloween and had a really good time.  Well, on second thought he wouldn’t really leave a note.  He would press really hard with a pencil so that by making an etching of his note, like she always did to figure out what phone numbers he was calling, she would “discover” his “reminder message” to himself, all by herself.

All Pat Escobar needed was an opening, a tiny crack in the wall of her resistance.  Then the “twin fantasy thing” would kick in and he would be home free.  Of course, all of this planning and scheming meant that Pat had to take on some more side work to finish buying the diamond ring, clothing, masks, and train tickets, as well as financing whatever fantasies, if any, came out of this effort.  If nothing happened, then he could always buy himself a few more feminine outfits that he could hide in Bernice’s large walk-in closet.

Her “discovery” of the honeymoon anniversary train-ride idea on the phone doodling pad, made Bernice wet with anticipation.  Pat carelessly, like a fox, left the sales certificate for the ring on the bathroom counter one morning.  Of course, Bernice found it.  She was so excited by his “mistake”, she start playing with herself.  Realizing what she was doing, she quietly stole down to the front door where Pat had left his brief case and slipped the certificate into it.  Before he left for work, Pat suggested that they wear their “twin” tuxedos to celebrate their fifth anniversary.  He “neglected” to mention either the diamond ring or the Halloween train.  Bernice wasn’t quite sure what Pat was up to, but she jumped at the “twin” tuxedo idea too.

Pat considered Bernice’s responses so positive, that as soon he arrived at his work and got online, he emailed Kerry and ordered a second “Emerrald” full-head latex mask.  When the mask came to his office address, he stayed late at work so that he could modify it in a manner where the zipper could be locked into a strong patent leather collar that Pat attached to the bottom of the beautiful and attractive “Emerrald” mask.  Once locked on, only the provocateur would be able to allow the wearer of the mask to take it off.  He also sent away to Fashion Boutique for two fox red wigs like the one that Suzi Q was wearing in the gallery of the Maskon site.

To cover his actual plan, when Pat revealed the train ride part of the “anniversary”, he told her that they would wear matching gorilla masks with their tuxedos when the masking portion of the rolling party started on the train after it pulled out of Sacramento.  Bernice tried on the gorilla mask Pat had purchased from the Oriental Trading Company with her tuxedo.  The look was like something from the film, “Planet of the Apes”.  While wearing the gorilla mask it wasn’t her idea of the anniversary outfit, there was that diamond ring that Pat still hadn’t mentioned.  Yet, for some curious and totally unknown reason, Bernice Escobar found that the whole mask wearing idea was a novel proposal and potentially a lot of fun.

“How cute,” she said.  “Gorillas in Tuxedos.  That ought to win something.”

“I’m trying to have fun on our anniversary, Bernice.  Not compete in a costume contest,” responded Pat Escobar.

“Winning is fun for me, Pat.”

“Not if it takes the joy out of doing the act itself, Bernice.”

Pat took great care in packing their suitcases so that his fantasy plans wouldn’t be discovered until after the trap had been sprung on Bernice.  They got on the train in Oakland for the sunset dinner portion of the trip to Reno.  They were already dressed in their tuxedos and looked great as a couple.  The meal was incredibly romantic and Pat had arranged for a single long stem rose to be delivered to the table.  He made sure that the majority of the Champagne was served to Bernice.  By the time the train arrived in Sacramento, she was feeling “fine” and full of food.

They went back to their cozy compartment to get ready for the Halloween party portion of the Gambler’s Special trip to Reno.  While Bernice was using their compartment’s toilet, Pat unpacked their incredibly feminine “Emerrald” full-head masks.  He then put on his gorilla mask and hands.  Next he reached for Bernice’s set of hands and mask.

“Here dear, let me assist you with yours,” suggested Pat through the face of his gorilla mask when Bernice stepped back into their compartment.

“How thoughtful, your are, Pat.  Let me pin my hair up and put on a stocking cap first.”  Pat figured that this was a good sign.  This meant to him that Bernice had put some thought into her masking with him.

“When we put on your mask, Bernice, I want you to close your eyes and keep them closed until I tell you to open them.  I want you to see the full effect of the head all at once.”  Feeling no pain from the joy of the meal and drink, Bernice Escobar agreed to close her eyes and keep them closed while her gorilla appearing husband pulled on her mask.  Bernice believed that if she did this right, the ring would be on her finger by Reno.  “I put a zipper into your mask’s head Bernice, so it would be easier to get it onto you head,” continued Pat as he started to pull the blue eyed “Emerrald mask” onto her head.

“Thanks, Pat.  You know that was the part I liked the least when I tried this gorilla mask on a couple of weeks ago.  I hope it wasn’t too much trouble for you.”

“I had a friend at the Magic Shop help me do it.”  Pat completed pulling the “Emerrald Mask” onto Bernice; smoothed out the wrinkles: pulled the zipper closed and locked the tab of the zipper into the patent leather collar.  Seeing Bernice with the “Emerrald mask” on for the first time almost made Pat have an accident in his pants.  She was absolutely beautiful as the wenchy “Emmerald”.

“This mask feels good, Pat.  The zipper was a good idea.  Because the cheeks feel tighter, the nose and mouth are much better placed, making it much easier to breathe.  May I look now?” asked the “Emerrald” masked Bernice.

“Just a minute.  I have to adjust the fir,” said Pat as he attached the over sized light amber ski glasses on her face.  He used the black-framed light amber goggles to lessen the staring and unblinking quality of the “Emerrald” mask’s bright blue  “eyes”.

 

“Now, Pat?”  Remembering how helping her try on the gorilla mask had excited her loving husband, Bernice reached between his legs and felt his desire.  “This mask must be highly improved over the last one, Pat.  I think you are harder than I have ever felt you before.”

“I have to admit that I am enjoying this, Bernice,” said Pat through his gorilla image.

“I’m glad, dear.  Consider it my anniversary present to you,” cued Bernice’s marvelously masked face.

“That’s really sweet, Bernice, but please don’t open your eyes just yet.”

“Okay, Pat.  Can you put a straw through the lips of the mask so I can have some more of that sparkling Champagne?”

“Certainly,” assured Pat as he handed her the glass and inserted the straw into her mouth through the full red lips of her enticing and exciting “Emerrald” mask.

“Thank you, Sweetie,” said Bernice.  “Do whatever you have to do quickly.  I can’t wait to see how good we look as the tuxedo wearing Gorilla Twins.”

“I want to make some final adjustments to your mask,” said Pat as he adjusted her bow tie to hide the locking collar on the mask; placed the Fox Red wig on her now bald latex-covered head; and pulled on a pair of matching cuff length leather gloves on her hands.  By the time Pat Escobar was done with Bernice’s transformation, she had finished her drink.  He spun her around on the seven inch heals of her boots so she could see herself in the bathroom compartment’s, full-length mirror when she finally opened her eyes.  “You can open your eyes now, Bernice.”

Now?” quizzed Bernice.

“Yes, Dear.”

Bernice opened her eyes.  Staring back at her from the mirror were a gorilla and an incredibly glamorous red head in tuxedos.  “Real cute, Pat.  This is a great joke, but this is not the mask I agreed to wear to the train’s Halloween party, so take it off.”

“Please leave it on, Honey,” pleaded Pat’s gorilla image.

“Even with my restricted vision, I can see that my wearing of this sexy female mask is making you too hard, Pat.  I want to be the only one that makes you that hard,” said Bernice.

“You are doing it, Dear.  Besides, I thought that this was my anniversary present,” asserted Pat

“The gorilla twins were your anniversary present, not this female masking combination,” declared Bernice.

“But this will be more fun and you said it was more comfortable than the gorilla mask,” responded Pat.

“I have to admit that this mask is one beautiful, red headed gorilla, Pat, but now we aren’t twins and thought that the being twins bit was part of your fantasy,” said the “Emerrald” and tuxedo wearing Bernice Escobar.

“I can fix that,” said Pat as he took off his gorilla mask and hands and pulled on his copy of the “Emerrald” mask; smoothed out it wrinkles, zipped it closed; pulled on his wig and gloves; and put on his black rimmed, light amber ski goggles.  As Pat’s version of “Emerrald” joined Bernice’s copy in the mirror, he announced, “Twins!”

“We are the sexiest gorillas I’ve ever seen, Pat.  Take your pictures so we can take off these incredibly realistic female masks and go to the train’s Halloween party the way I originally agreed to do it,” suggested Bernice.

“Here we go again,” said Pat as he unpacked his camera.  “I thought you said that this was my anniversary present, Bernice, not yours.”

“All right, Pat.  I know that I said that, but no hanky panky while I’m wearing this red headed, full lipped person as my identity, Pat,” proclaimed Bernice Escobar.

“We’ll see, Dearest.  I’ll bet we have a better chance winning the prize in these beautiful female masks instead of the gorillas,” suggested Pat Escobar as he began snapping pictures of his fantasy of a tuxedo wearing “Emerrald”.

“I thought you said that you didn’t want to win a prize, Pat, but maybe you are right.  These full head female masks really are great.  I can’t believe how natural and realistic we look,” observed Bernice as she peered intently, once again through the staring blue eyes and light ambler ski goggles at her classy “Emerrald” mask, at her unbelievable reflection in the compartment’s mirror.

“I was hoping that you would feel that way about them, dear,” said Pat through the full red lips of Kerry’s wonderful creation.  Pat was so glad that he had picked the “Emerrald” mask over the “Sheila” after he had seen Bernice’s reaction to the lovely qualities of the Kerry’s “Emerrald” mask.  His wife was so photogenic in her “Emerrald” mask, although Pat was careful to keep this thought from passing his lips.

“My vision is perfect, Pat.  And, you are my exact duplicate.  Where did you find these marvelous masks?”

“On the Internet, Emerrald,” said Pat’s masked face while taking the last of his pre party pictures for the evening.

“Who’s Emerrald?” asked the mask wearing Bernice.

“You are,” announced Pat through his mask’s full red lips.

“Oh, I get it.  That is the name of my masked character,” responded Bernice’s masked image.

“Yes it is,” confirmed Pat’s version of the same identity.

“That is a nice name, but we can’t both be Emerrald,” suggested Bernice’s masked identity.

“What do you suggest, Emerrald?” asked Pat’s version of “Emerrald”.

“How about this for an idea, Pat?  I’ll become Patricia and you call yourself, Bernice.  That way we can each be somebody different, but still have ID that makes us both real people?”

Pat couldn’t have fantasized a better suggestion.  “That would be great, Patricia.”

“I’m glad you are pleased, even though these masks are not what I agreed to, Bernice.  Every time I say yes to one of your fantasies, you always try to go a step further,” declared Bernice as the newly masked “Patricia”.

“The names were your ideas, Patricia,” stated Pat as the new “Emerrald” wearing “Bernice”.

“I know that, but I’m sure you have some other things in mind, Bernice,” stated Pat’s masked wife.

“At this point I’m playing it by my masked ear, Patricia.”

“This must have taken a lot of planning, Bernice,” stated the new “Patricia”.

“Not that much,” lied the new “Bernice”.

“What, now?” asked Bernice as “Patricia”.

“I have something else for you to wear,” answered the new “Bernice” as “she” started to reach into “her” pocket.

“Can it wait?  I want to enjoy this masking with you first,” said the new “Patricia”.

“I guess it can, but don’t let me forget, Patricia,” the mask of “Bernice”.

“I won’t, Bernice.  Let’s walk to the train’s party car.  Everything should be in full gear by now.  I’ll bet we will be a tall and female show stopping couple.  Do you think we could wear these masks with our tuxedos for New Years?” asked the real Bernice from behind her “Emerrald” mask.

“Sounds like a fabulous idea to me, Patricia.”

“I just love the feeling of uninhibited freedom that this masculine costume and sexy female mask have given to me,” proclaimed the new “Pat”.

“So do I,” admitted her masked twin.

“Why didn’t you show me these mask before, Bernice?” asked the real Bernice with the red-lipped mouth of her exotic and erotic “Emerrald” mask.

“I really didn’t like them all that much until I saw it on you, Lover,” lied Pat again as “Bernice”.  “Why do you ask?”

“If I knew that a latex female mask could be so beautiful and natural, I might have done this masking routine for you a long time ago,” said the real Bernice as “Patricia”.

“You don’t think that what you are saying now sounds contradictory or weird compared to what you have said on this topic in years gone by, Patricia?”

“No.  Do you?” asked the real Bernice while enjoying her new identity of a masked “Patrick Escobar”.

“Not if you don’t,” stated Pat as the new “Bernice”.  In fact behind his disguise, Pat was glad that Bernice was moving in this direction.  He even wished that he hadn’t brought up the question.

As they walked along the train’s narrow corridor to the party car, Patricia asked through her “Emerrald” mask, “I know I said no to any hanky panky while I was wearing this marvelous and beautiful female mask, but would you feel strange if I seduced you while we both wore our masks, Bernice?”

“No.  Not if it makes you happy, Patricia,” answered the new “Bernice”.  “She” was in fantasy paradise now.  The new “Patricia” was suggesting the things “she” had been afraid to ask.  Maybe the mask was liberating his wife’s sexual desires.   “Don’t forget to remind me about that other item I have for you to wear,” the new “Bernice” continued.  “It is special and you are making me feel very special.”

“Careful, Bernice.  I’m already wet with desire.  Let’s only stay in the party car until the costume contest.  I want to have sex with my new Bernice before we get to Reno,” proclaimed “Patricia”.

“Say it a little softer, Patricia,” suggested the new “Bernice” as the tall tuxedo-wearing female twins reentered the party car.  “Anticipation is part of the fun.”  The party in the train’s party car was in full swing, but the tall female couple’s entrance produced a momentary silence and then a buzz of positive comments.

“I have anticipated this move for several years, Bernice.  I have always thought that inside your masculine heart beat a woman’s soul,” stated the new “Patricia” as she reached down between her masked husband’s legs and rubbed his masculinity through his tuxedo pants with her leather-gloved hand.

“What are you doing, Patricia?  Your old self would never have done that,” proclaimed the new “Bernice”.   “I think that mask has given your spirit some erotic motivation.”

“You are so right about that, Bernice.  This wonderful mask has released me from my old conservative self, Lover.  You had better get ready to expect the unexpected from me.  Like I said before, I feel so free and uninhibited.  Order me a strawberry margarita from the bar.”

“If you keep this up, Patricia, we aren’t staying in the party car past Kingvale.  Are you sure you will have time to finish your drink?” asked the new “Bernice” as the train picked up the second engine in Auburn.

“Play with me, Bernice.  Don’t be such a party-pooper.  Let your fantasies run wild,” said “Patricia” as the tall and elegant female couple finally found a couple of unoccupied chairs at the engine end of the long and nicely appointed articulated party car.

“They already are, Patricia.  I just don’t want them to run amuck before we get to our hotel room in Reno.” 

“That’s your problem, Bernice, you don’t know how to let go and move to where the spirit takes you,” announced the new “Patricia” as she stole one of Pat’s regular lines.  “I may keep this mask on all weekend, Bernice.  Do you think that you can handle that?”

Pat’s fantasies were running wild but he wasn’t prepared for this turn of events and,  “I think so, Patricia,” was all that he could manage to say from behind his mask.  He loved being “Bernice” and he wondered if his beautifully wife stayed in her masked role all weekend if she would let him do the same.  For the moment Pat Escobar decided to let that question stay unanswered.  After all, the real Bernice didn’t know yet that her fabulous “Emerrald” mask was locked onto her head.  Maybe Pat Escobar would wait until the real Bernice had a couple of drinks in her or around the time that he gave her the ring to ask.

“I thought that your female mask would give you a new spirit too, Bernice.  Get with it and let’s reach for the stars.”

“I don’t need a spirit, Patricia.  I’ll go wherever you take me,” said the new “Bernice”.

“Nicely put, Bernice.  Now get me that drink with two straws.  I want to suck were you suck.”

“I’ve never heard you talk like that before,” reiterated Pat as “Bernice”.

“You have never seen me set free before, Lover.”

“Where have you been for the past five years of our marriage, Patricia?  You are now the complete and sexy woman that I thought I had married,” admitted the new “Bernice.”

“So are you, Bernice,” proclaimed the new “Patricia”.

“Why did you say that, Patricia?”

“For a couple of years now I thought that you would make me a better wife than a husband, Bernice,” announced the new and sexy “Patricia”.

“If you only knew how strange that sounds in your feminine voice and coming out of your feminine face, Patricia.”

“I’m sure it does, Bernice.”

“Even so, Patricia, where have you been, anyway?” probed the new “Bernice.”

“In the back of your closet, and inside my winter coats, just waiting to be let out.  Now hurry up, Bernice, and get that drink so we can get on with the rest of this trip and our loving, masking lives.  I want to see what other surprises you have as well as what surprises will arise from me.”

“I love you, Patricia,” said Pat tenderly as “Bernice”.

“Be the great wife that know you want to be and get me that drink, Lover,” asserted the real Bernice as “Patricia”.  “In fact, make that drink a double and be sure that you get us two long straws.”  The new “Bernice” got their drinks as quickly as possible.  “Her” newly masked beauty was attracting the unattached males in the Gambler’s Special Party Car like flies on rotten dog shit during the high heat of the day.  Once they were in Reno Pat wondered if they could use their “Emerrald” masks to explore why his wife thought that he should be “the wife” in their relationship.