A son was the main goal of Peter’s parents’ marriage. Truth be told, it was the father who was obsessed with an idea of having a male heir. The family moved to Canada, leaving China behind. However, the change of a citizenship was the easiest part. Mrs. Huang missed both her homeland and the old life, but her husband – Mr. Hung – forbade her to demonstrate that weakness of hers. The man was determined to achieve success that – according to him – was going to be based on westernization of the family and a son. The first two attempts to have a son didn’t bring Mr. Huang any luck.
Adele was the oldest daughter, beautiful and elegant like an exotic flower. The next one was Helen who was a family genius. Peter was the third child, a long-awaited heir, his father’s biggest pride and accomplishment. The last was Bonnie, a girl who refused to follow her family’s rules and chose fun over discipline. No matter how hard Mr. Huang tried to turn Peter into a real man, there was still something suspicious about him. The truth was that Peter had a lot of troubles with identifying himself as a boy. To be a girl was his biggest dream that he had to hide from his family and scarce friends.
When Peter grew up and both Adele and Helen had already left home and moved to different places, he had to decide what to do next. He chose Montreal as a place of his destination, for it was a big city where he could live a life he dreamt about. Being a good cook, he quickly found two jobs and started living a double-life. His colleagues knew him as a hard-working cook whose whole life was revolving around the kitchen. The truth was that Peter was simply afraid of following his heart. The only one pleasure he allowed himself was dressing as woman inside his apartment. For a short period of time, he got engaged into a rather bizarre relationship with an older woman.
Several years later his father died and his mother proved to be quite capable of living by herself. Peter took his father’s last words to heart and tried to change himself. He even found a woman who was haunted by similar demons and was trying to start a new life. That period was filled with religiousness. It turned out to be that relationship based on lies wasn’t going to last and the pair broke up. There were several other attempts to come out, but fear prevented Peter from announcing the truth to the world. He decided to leave Montreal and follow Bonnie’s example who was traveling in Europe. He was too tired of fighting, too stressed to demand equal rights. He just wanted to see his sisters again, he wanted to hear how they would address him as a sister too.
