____________________________________________________________________
“But why?” The boy asked.
“What are they for?”
“For one thing,” the father smiled,
“they sure look nice.”
Seriously now,
“But God really made ‘em for feeding babies.”
“Babies!”
‘For feeding babies’?”
the boy asked incredulously.
“How?”
Knowing he was going to ask...
____________________________________________________________________
Sex Ed 3: Circa 1944
“Through these and…”
The eraser tapping the small
circles drawn on each breast.
“…they’re called nipples.”
“Like nipples on a baby bottle?”
“Yeah, just like,” the father said,
“only they’re not made of rubber.”
Grinding the third cigarette into the ashtray,
“When a, uh, female has a baby, they,
the lady’s nipples get a little opening in them
and the baby is able to suck milk through.”
“ ‘Milk’, Dad?”
No less incredulous.
“Milk comes from cows!”
Giggling,
“How’s a lady get milk in her?”
Having not the slightest idea,
or, if the father had,
having not the slightest idea
how to explain it.
“That’s a different lesson
that we’ll talk about some other time,
okay?”
“Yeah. Okay.
Think it hurts the lady?”
Lighting a fourth cigarette, “What?”
“Getting holes in her nipples.”
“No." Said tiredly,
"I don’t think it hurts the lady.”
“How’s ‘bout when the baby, uh,
sucks her milk?”
“No. Matter of fact, the lady usually likes it.”
Blowing twin streams of smoke,
smiling,
“At least till the kid starts to grow teeth.”
Smiling also, “Yeah,” the boy said,
“I guess so.”
“Besides Breasts…”
Inhaling, exhaling.
“…this is…”
Leaving breasts,
traveling about an inch lower,
the eraser touching the female’s “V”
then the male’s “Y”.
“The main difference between
a male and a female….”
Stopping,
puffing on the cigarette,
lifting the book,
lifting The Joy of Sex,
ruffling a few pages forward,
then a page or two back.
Apparently finding what
he was looking for.
“Besides breasts,
the main difference between
a male and a female is…”
Glancing at the page,
taking a deep breath,
“The main difference between
a male and a female
is that the female’s sex organs
are on the inside, and….”
“Sex organ?” The son questioned,
“Like something like the Phantom
played in the movie?”
‘Phantom’ ‘Movie’, The father thought,
What in the hell’s he talking about?
“ ‘Movie,’ ” he questioned,
“what movie?”
“Dad, you know!
The movie!
‘The Phantom of the Opera’.”
Oh, God.
His fingers massaging his forehead,
“No, not that kind of an organ.
A sex organ is…”
Thinking a moment,
“Your penis is your sex organ
and it can’t be… ”
about to say, played,
he thought better of it.
Not understanding,
but noting the now high pitched
tone of voice
and the flushed look on his father’s face.
Accepting the fact that his penis/prick
is also, somehow,
some kind of an ‘organ’,
simply stated,
“Oh.” the boy said.
“Yeah! Now,"
the father demanded,
"do you mind if we go on!?”
“Okay.”
“Anyway, you can see a male’s sex organ.
Like you, uh, yours."
Dragging on the cigarete,
" Males have theirs on the outside.”
Waiting for his son to say something,
when he didn’t…
“And you can’t see female’s sex organs because
female sex organs are on the inside.”
The singular male
and plural female sex organs
not registering with the boy,
however: “Never?” he asked.
“ ‘Never’ what?”
“You can’t never see a female’s sex organ?”
“No. Well, not usually.”
A reflective look
coming to the father’s face,
“I guess maybe you can if you’re,
uh…”
His mind touching on a past memory,
the reflective look
now replaced with a crooked smile.
“Sometimes, yes.
Sometimes,
if you’re in the right position,
sometimes you can, uh,
see a female’s sex organs.”
A bit confused by
the see-sawing of his father’s
demeanor,
“What’s it look like,”
the son asked,
“the female’s sex organ?”
Uh-oh!
