They are more likely to resort to tried and true methods. You tend to ... shoot from the hip more frequently.”“Is that a good thing or a bad thing...?” I wondered.“That always depends on whether you hit where you were aiming,” he said with a chuckle.To hear the man speaking on the phone, a person would picture a tall, urbane gentleman with just a hint of grey at this temples dressed in an impeccably cut suit of the highest standard.The reality was far different. The professor’s almost bald pate. Phil would take a quick shower after practice and head home to study. He would read the requisite chapters or compile the necessary reports and then tumble into bed.“Let’s go out tonight,” Hailey said. “We haven’t been anywhere since we got back.”“I’m tired,” Phil admitted. He was battling Darren Jones tooth and nail for the starting right fielder spot and working his ass on the pitching mound, too. He had two exams the following week and a paper due at the first of the month – the day he left. I started night and day, dreaming about being a woman, I no longer looked at women as the other gender, but as the gender I had to be, mind you, I wasn't gay, but I still looked at men and wondered, wondered about being with them while being a woman and as my discomfort with being a man grew, I started remembering things from my childhood, things I had blocked out because everyone laughed at me. I was a very skinny, very small kid and I liked to play girl games, and didn't like men sports, so. I was all of a sudden intensely aware that I had gotten my hands and arms bloody in all my hugging and sobbing. My face was also smeared with a healthy portion of snot. I was somehow more embarrassed by the latter than the former. When she had satisfied herself that the situation was exactly as it appeared, she said the only things there were to say, I suppose. ‘You Marshall Merrick, ain’t you? We done had Sunday school together two years ago.’ I nodded that I was. She paused only a second.