about Danny fathering another girl. She didn’t take it well. She feels deserted by him.
“Yeah. I worry about Beks all the time. I’m glad she tries to look like a boy now. It’s safer. But, at the same time, I worry that she’ll end up like her mother, wanting nothing to do with men. I don’t want that for her, either. I don’t know what I want. But it’s not right for Danny to take no responsibility for her future whatsoever.”
“I’m pretty sure she won’t end up like Dora,” I tell him.
“How can you be so sure?”
“She doesn’t fit the profile. Plus she’s attracted to David.”
This throws him off guard. We all know that David craves Rebekah. He can’t help it. But it’s news to John that his daughter, a girl he encourages to look like a boy, feels a very womanly pull toward my gawky teenage son.
“That’s very dangerous,” he says.
“Yes,” I agree.
Chapter 10
David
Simon Says
Lately, Simon will not leave me alone. It’s “Hey, Dave” this and “Hey, Dave” that. He follows me around like a puppy and keeps asking me questions.
He’s my brother, and he’s basically a good person. But he’s also annoying as hell. I’m losing patience.
Today he wants to tell me everything he’s heard about Mrs. Edelson. One of his friends at school has an older brother who’s recently visited her for the first time. The friend’s second-hand version of his brother’s initiation seems to Simon to be too fantastical to be true. And he wants to run it by me. How the hell am I supposed to know if his squeaky-voice friend is embellishing the story? But Simon thinks I know all there is to know because I’m almost 16. And soon, it’ll be my turn. Or so he assumes.
I myself have heard all I want to hear about Mrs. Edelson and Mrs. Larson and Mrs. Fiorino from some of the recently initiated at my school. The pleasure shops are a big topic of conversation. There’s a lot of debate about which is the best, which is the most popular, which of the three proprietresses is the sexiest. Everyone, it seems, goes to one by the time he’s 16.
Maybe there’s something wrong with me, but I’m just not interested in having sex with someone who’s as old as my grandmother, even if she is a professional who’s somehow very enticing, and an expert at teaching boys how to be men.
“So listen to this,” says Simon. “She takes Greg—that’s Wyatt’s brother—by the hand and leads him into the back room where there’s this big, soft bed, and it’s dark, and there’s some kind of incense burning, and music playing, and she takes off this silky thing she’s wearing, and undresses him, and she makes him feel what’s between her legs, and all this time his pecker is getting bigger and bigger. But then she calms him down somehow so he doesn’t come right away all over himself, even before he even gets inside her. But how could she do that?”
“How should I know, Simon? And anyway, what difference does it make? You’re only 11. You’re too young to think about all this shit.”
At least three of my fathers have mentioned Mrs. Edelson to me in the last month or so. Going to a pleasure shop is supposed to be good for you.
“It’s a safe, healthy release,” says Papa Sam, who goes regularly. He’s a dentist and supposedly knows about health issues. But I don’t see what’s healthy about it. I’d rather come by myself in the privacy of my own room thinking about Rebekah.
Thinking about Rebekah is not healthy. That’s what I’m informed by just about every adult living in this house. But what I think about is my own business. That’s what I think.
Rebekah is studying now to be a nurse. She could be a physician, if she wanted to. She’s smart enough. But if she did, she’d have to go live with some woman in another city who’s already an experienced doctor and become her apprentice until she gets married.
“Yeah. I worry about Beks all the time. I’m glad she tries to look like a boy now. It’s safer. But, at the same time, I worry that she’ll end up like her mother, wanting nothing to do with men. I don’t want that for her, either. I don’t know what I want. But it’s not right for Danny to take no responsibility for her future whatsoever.”
“I’m pretty sure she won’t end up like Dora,” I tell him.
“How can you be so sure?”
“She doesn’t fit the profile. Plus she’s attracted to David.”
This throws him off guard. We all know that David craves Rebekah. He can’t help it. But it’s news to John that his daughter, a girl he encourages to look like a boy, feels a very womanly pull toward my gawky teenage son.
“That’s very dangerous,” he says.
“Yes,” I agree.
Chapter 10
David
Simon Says
Lately, Simon will not leave me alone. It’s “Hey, Dave” this and “Hey, Dave” that. He follows me around like a puppy and keeps asking me questions.
He’s my brother, and he’s basically a good person. But he’s also annoying as hell. I’m losing patience.
Today he wants to tell me everything he’s heard about Mrs. Edelson. One of his friends at school has an older brother who’s recently visited her for the first time. The friend’s second-hand version of his brother’s initiation seems to Simon to be too fantastical to be true. And he wants to run it by me. How the hell am I supposed to know if his squeaky-voice friend is embellishing the story? But Simon thinks I know all there is to know because I’m almost 16. And soon, it’ll be my turn. Or so he assumes.
I myself have heard all I want to hear about Mrs. Edelson and Mrs. Larson and Mrs. Fiorino from some of the recently initiated at my school. The pleasure shops are a big topic of conversation. There’s a lot of debate about which is the best, which is the most popular, which of the three proprietresses is the sexiest. Everyone, it seems, goes to one by the time he’s 16.
Maybe there’s something wrong with me, but I’m just not interested in having sex with someone who’s as old as my grandmother, even if she is a professional who’s somehow very enticing, and an expert at teaching boys how to be men.
“So listen to this,” says Simon. “She takes Greg—that’s Wyatt’s brother—by the hand and leads him into the back room where there’s this big, soft bed, and it’s dark, and there’s some kind of incense burning, and music playing, and she takes off this silky thing she’s wearing, and undresses him, and she makes him feel what’s between her legs, and all this time his pecker is getting bigger and bigger. But then she calms him down somehow so he doesn’t come right away all over himself, even before he even gets inside her. But how could she do that?”
“How should I know, Simon? And anyway, what difference does it make? You’re only 11. You’re too young to think about all this shit.”
At least three of my fathers have mentioned Mrs. Edelson to me in the last month or so. Going to a pleasure shop is supposed to be good for you.
“It’s a safe, healthy release,” says Papa Sam, who goes regularly. He’s a dentist and supposedly knows about health issues. But I don’t see what’s healthy about it. I’d rather come by myself in the privacy of my own room thinking about Rebekah.
Thinking about Rebekah is not healthy. That’s what I’m informed by just about every adult living in this house. But what I think about is my own business. That’s what I think.
Rebekah is studying now to be a nurse. She could be a physician, if she wanted to. She’s smart enough. But if she did, she’d have to go live with some woman in another city who’s already an experienced doctor and become her apprentice until she gets married.
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