Betty Said It Best

Oh God, she said. What a dump. Did anyone tell the truth like BD? A friend of mine told me that long ago a news item on TV prompted her young daughter to ask what a prostitute was. My friend told her it was someone who liked to go to parties.

Well?

That's not wrong, is it?

My parents never said a word about sex. I had to figure it out from my friends, who told me some good ones.

I sat at the kitchen table doing homework with my friend Judy in the eighth grade. EIGHTH GRADE!!!

Enter Betty again.

GOD.

My mother left us for only a minute, disappearing down the basement stairs to get something, probably from the freezer.

"Do you know how a woman has a baby?" Judy said in a whisper.

"Yes," I said with confidence. "The sperm fertilizes the egg." I had just read this somewhere.

"No," said my friend. "That's not it."

Let's have Betty enter again, shall we?

GOD.

"It isn't?" I asked. In the time it took for the basement door to open, my friend told me the secret of life, the birds and the bees, the thing that every kid learns.

"The man puts his blah blah blah into the blah blah."

With that, my mother walked back into the kitchen. Judy and I sat there for a while. I think she nodded at me smugly. I said to my mother, "Judy's leaving now. I'm going to walk her halfway home."

I don't remember what my mother said. I'm sure her thoughts were on dinner.

My thoughts were on WHAT A TRAVESTY!! THIS CAN'T BE TRUE!!!

Judy explained it all by saying, "That's why the man gets on top of the woman."

I didn't know this.

I knew there was no Santa Claus. Hey. I found that out in sixth grade.

But this seemed really secret. It wasn't on television, there was no hint of it in family life, how could it be true? Nowadays of course, it's totally on television.

The only thing I can compare it to is the secrecy surrounding childbirth. And that is a BIG secret. Stay tuned.

Oh dear reader, I am deep into my novel now. It's giving me thoughts and making me think.

Oh god.

A bientot

love,

becky