ABSTRACT
Fernando waits until his mother is out visiting a friend. Once he is sure that she’s gone, he walks into his sister’s room and picks out a dress from her closet. It is made of white cotton with a pattern of yellow flowers. The twelve-year-old boy proceeds to put on his mother’s wig, along with some lipstick and makeup, and is suddenly transformed into a pretty fifteen-year-old girl, singing and dancing in front of the mirror: “I saw a plane, a train, and a beautiful ship in the sea …” In a stroke, Fernando has shed his own persona and become Mona Bell, his favorite Chilean singer. He does not know why it happens; only that he has been doing it for as long as he can remember and that he has not told anyone his secret—that he feels like a girl and loves to dress as one.
