Oh, I love this. I love that you've chosen to write about this subject, and I like your treatment of it. And your characterization is so good.

I can't help but feel very sad for Stephen, hiding his body for twenty years with makeshift binding, probably too afraid and trapped in his secret to be able to go out and buy more adequate material... And he's been afraid he'd have to recover from an operation all by himself, it's so T_T. You can feel the fears, the terrible isolation and the self-imposed limits in all kinds of small details, it's very well done. I also love how you've portrayed him as very strong in the middle of all that and totally not a self-pitying woobie.

This story gets to me because my favorite cousin is currently transitioning from woman to man. I often wish I knew about transsexuality when we were younger and he was probably struggling to understand what was going on with him. I just thought he was an extreme kind of tomboy... Had I been better informed, I might have been able to offer more emotional support when he needed it. The joys of small town life in a pre-Internet era!

EDIT: Wow, sorry for the novel...