Dressed for Disaster: The Sequel

Patrick Summers wandered the streets of lower Manhattan in an aimless fog, the chaos surrounding him a lurid backdrop for the turmoil between his ears. He had just suffered two tremendous shocks: his narrow escape from the collapse of the World Trade Center, and his unmasking as a crossdresser on television.

As he moved north towards Greenwich Village, Pat desperately tried to think. The local station, which had filmed him fleeing the disaster in a woman's wig and earrings, would surely discard the footage as out of keeping with the enormity of the event. Even if they did show it, it was unlikely that any of the networks would pick it up and broadcast it in Chicago, he reasoned. As far as his family or co-workers knew, he might well be dead.

Had it not been for the twin shocks to his system, it is likely that Pat would have called his wife and secretary, assured them that he was alive, and gone about making arrangements to return to Chicago. Instead, as he turned down a narrow street into the heart of the Village, strange thoughts began to excite him. He could escape his humdrum existence, leave his family set for life with the insurance money, and establish a new identity in his alter ego. He could reinvent himself as Patricia Summers.

Pat's compulsion to dress as a woman had grown stronger over the past year, and perhaps it was inevitable that he would have been led to this path. In any event, his vulnerability following the trauma of the morning, and the unique opportunity presented by his brush with death, fueled his fixation and emboldened him to live out his fantasies.

As he moved down the quiet street, Pat took stock of his situation. He was dressed in a cheap sweat suit and sneakers, still clutching the wig, which he had torn off his head as he ran from the cameras. His earrings, and all of his other feminine paraphernalia, had been lost or destroyed. He had about ten dollars in his pocket. If he tried to access his bank accounts, any chance to fake his death would be foreclosed.