Requiem For A “Tranny”*

During a period of insomnia, I found myself riding the original Suzy around Jacksonville’s “docks area”. A few of the old-time hard characters that rode crated motorcycles around those parts would talk of their bikes with a vernacular that isn’t used anymore. They would sing a sweet song about going to a Daytona parts yard and finding something they had been on the lookout for. I heard one of those faded leather warriors ask about a tranny for some 1970s motorcycle.

I look at those days during my illegal riding spree in the shaky rear view. The noise and “madder” conversations made life a little easier. Although it couldn’t prepare me for the modern day.

It was a few years after I sold the original Suzy that I met one of life’s most interesting background characters. Her name needs to be left for those who knew her.

I met her two years after I left the US Navy for other reasons to be an insomniac and to be depressed. My coworkers at the time would regale me with the wildest of stories. They told me about the police being called after she whooped up a paramour who got embarrassed after word of their tryst got out. From another person in the know, I found out that she beat up several people at a drag queen show which she ended up winning. A meth-addled madman told me that she used to school suckers during basketball pickup games at a local high school.

I judged her by a bizarre set of rules. She was the one person who tried to give me a clue as to why a certain piece of machinery wasn’t working or why we weren’t making product. Sometimes I would at least receive a greeting when no one would acknowledge us. My time with her was short as neither would keep a job.

I sporadically saw her out and about in town. A family member would ask about her, often enjoying a light-hearted chuckle. Another former classmate of hers did the same.

I saw little of her in the community in the community in the past few years due to my absence from the country. The characters of our lives keep going as we might pause.

It was a strange sight to see her in the obituaries the other day.

I have been a huge critic of the trans community, but I feel like I have the right to mourn the one that tried to make my life less dim when I was struggling after my military discharge.