The Tulip Lady

Here I am, holding the thousandth tulip in my hand. Or the ten thousandth. Or the one hundred thousandth. I don't count them anymore. Everyone calls me the Tulip Lady, but until a few years ago I would never have imagined in my worst nightmare that I would have this nickname. In fact the 25 year old girl you see was a 20 year old boy 5 years ago. I was the heir to my family and our marquisate. While now here I am receiving a tulip from my future husband, imposed by my family.

It all started one evening 5 years ago. I had just returned from a hunting trip, and I found a beautiful tulip on the doorknob of my room. I thought it was a gift from some charming maid in the house who had fallen in love with me. "Poor deluded girl", I thought, "but it's a sweet gesture, and if she's nice I could make her happy for a night...". But while I was thinking about which maid could be my "secret admirer", I smelled the beautiful tulip and immediately felt a burning sensation and strong tingling sensations throughout my body. The tulip instantly turned to ash, terrifying me further. “Did I just get poisoned?” I thought, and ran in confusion towards my parents' nearby room. As soon as I entered I found my father and mother there, but I didn't have time to say anything. Immediately the burning and tingling became more intense, and my body changed under the terrified, shocked and worried eyes of my parents. In just 10 seconds I became a girl. I was apparently the same age as before, but every fiber of my body had become feminine. As soon as I recovered from the shock, I explained what had happened to my parents. My father went to investigate among the servants if anyone knew anything about a tulip on my door, while I remained with my mother crying. I don't even remember the last time I cried before that day. It happens to me often in recent years. My father returned after an hour and told us that no one knew anything. For the moment I would have to pretend to be a normal girl so as not to attract dangerous attention and accusations of witchcraft. My father called my older sister (22) and my younger brother (18) into the room and told them what had happened, while I was unable to look them in the eyes out of shame. I could sense their shocked expressions. We decided together that for the moment we would tell that "I" had suddenly left to study in France, while a "cousin of mine" from Ireland had come to live with my parents. It was very humiliating to have to publicly pass myself off as a girl, but we had no choice. My family and I investigated for months, without attracting attention, to understand what had happened and how to transform me again, but without success.

For two weeks my mother and sister taught me everything they could about being a girl and a female member of a noble family. It was terrible, but necessary. I was paranoid for months, thinking about who could be the culprit of my curse, who could have placed that enchanted tulip on my door. Another young noble from the area envious of my successes? A furious maid for some unappreciated comment of mine? My sister, to not be the only daughter and have a sister to "have fun" doing girly things with? My brother, to become our father's heir and become Marquis one day? I don't know, and maybe I will never know. And over time I accepted it. After a couple of years I stopped asking myself these questions. Everyone always treated me well and family members who knew my identity showed tact and empathy. But obviously they increasingly treated me like a girl, a daughter, a sister. And almost every activity I loved was no longer possible, from hunting to courting the beautiful girls in town. Over time I accepted this too, despite suffering a lot in the first few months.

Since the day of my transformation I have become obsessed with tulips, hoping to find another one that can transform me again. Walking down the street I always stopped to smell the tulips in every vase and at every florist. At every ball and public event I went first to smell the decorative tulips. In a few months the rumor spread that the beautiful and charming niece of the Marquis adored tulips, and numerous suitors began to continually give them to me. And I continued to smell them one by one, always, hopefully. After a year everyone in town started calling me the Tulip Lady.

After 4 years my father explained to me that he was patient, understanding the tough situation I was in, but that it was time to find me a husband. We argued for a long time, I was desperate, but in the end I gave up. In fact I was now a 24 year old woman from an important family, it was really strange not to be married. So I started meeting possible matches from noble families in the area. And after a few months I met a better man than the others, a 26-year-old nephew of a count, funny, kind and willing to provide me with much more freedom than the classic wives of the 17th century. He immediately fell in love with me, while I... I still can't fall in love with a man, still feeling like a man inside myself, but I started to care for him. He's a good man, and I'm willing to spend my life with him if I don't find a solution to my "condition". When he asked for my hand in marriage, I said yes. I cried, feeling another part of the old me fade away, but to him they seemed like tears of joy.

In a week I will be married, I will be a wife, and probably within a short time a mother. My destiny as a young Marquis will be just a distant memory. And I won't be able to do anything but smell every tulip I see, as long as I have the strength to try. Reinforcing my reputation as the "Tulip Lady". Ironic. A tulip stole the life I loved. Everyone calls me Tulip Lady, I'm always looking for tulips, but I really, really hate tulips with all my heart. Really ironic.