Mercy got mistaken for a boy quite often. With her short mussed, dusty blond hair, bushy eyebrows, and angular facial structure, she really couldn’t blame anyone. She was taller than average for girls, with broad shoulders and a slim waist that had very little curve. Her family encouraged it, using it as a joke more often than not, calling her by her middle name, Scott, and laughing loudly as was their constant manner. Mercy Scott Montgomery. She often wondered why her parents had decided such masculine names were a good choice for a baby girl, but she didn’t really mind. It was her name after all, and it fit her perfectly. It was elegant and refined, like her style of dressing and her manner. It would look good on a Broadway sign, which is exactly where she intended it to go one day. Because of her boyish feature, Mercy could get any part she wanted in her high school productions without worrying about her gender. She had the theatrical talent for every genre, but her main focus was drama. She enjoyed the rush of an illicit love affair or a broken heart on stage. She reveled in exploring her characters but it caused her anxiety as well. She had a terrible memory for events, though she could recite Shakespeare with perfect precision. Sometimes she couldn’t tell what was factual from what she had imagined and that terrified her. She never told her parents for fear of being abnormal, but sometimes, when she delved too deeply into becoming someone else…. she got stuck. Her outward calm never betrayed that in those moments, inside, she was scared she would never find herself again.
A Girl Named Mercy
