Mother took a deep breath, the way she did when she was annoyed by something Daddy had said.
“I’m sorry,” Haylee said quickly, and lowered her head.
“You need to think more before you speak. Your tongue can get too far ahead of you and get you into trouble. Understand?”
“Yes, Mother,” Haylee said.
I didn’t think I had to say anything.
“All right. Where was I? Boys, although they mature slower than girls in every way, are usually more aggressive when it comes to having sex,” Mother continued. “It’s been that way since the caveman days. In fact, some men behave as if they are still back there when it comes to having sex for pleasure.”
Haylee looked up quickly. This was the first time Mother had mentioned “having sex” and “pleasure” in the same sentence, revealing that it was something you could do for other reasons than having babies.
“That doesn’t mean they enjoy it more,” Mother quickly added. She smiled at our looks of astonishment.
Both of us were thinking, What other mother but ours would come right out and say such a thing?
“Sex is something a man and a woman can both enjoy. Look at it this way, my precious, if it wasn’t enjoyable, human beings might not do it enough to have children and keep the human race going.”
“So every animal enjoys it?” Haylee asked. “I mean, we learned in science that they have sex. I mean, Mr. Boyton didn’t call it sex. He called it reproduction,” she added, with twisted lips as if the word itself was distasteful.
“I think that’s safe to say, yes, they enjoy it. Now, here comes the most important part, dear Haylee and Kaylee. You can enjoy it too much, or you can forget that the most important reason for it is to make children.”
“You don’t make children every time,” Haylee blurted. Her conversations with her “special group” were showing.
“Okay, Haylee,” Mother said, sitting back and crossing her arms over her breasts. “Why don’t you tell us why not?”
Suddenly, Haylee looked frightened. I couldn’t help the way my lips were starting to smile. I could help her, but I wanted her to struggle with her lies.
“We learned that a woman has to be ready to make babies inside,” she said, practically stuttering.
“Yes, but she could be unaware of how ready she is. Then what could happen?”
Haylee pressed her lips together.
Mother looked at me, so I had to answer. “She could get pregnant,” I said.
“How?” Mother asked.
“The man’s sperm gets into her and meets an egg.”
Mother nodded. “And who do you think would suffer the most after that?” Mother asked us, looking more at Haylee now.
“The girl,” I said when Haylee hesitated. I had to wonder if she had any doubt.
Haylee nodded.
This conversation was already going places Haylee had never anticipated we would go with our mother. It was fun to talk about these things with her girlfriends. I had to admit that even I enjoyed listening to them talk sometimes, but showing too much excitement about it when your mother discussed it was a definite no-no.
“All of this doesn’t just happen out of the blue. There are places on your body that a boy could touch, even touch with his lips, that would make you so excited that you might forget what you know could happen, so you have to be very, very careful,” Mother said.
“Lips?” Haylee said, now smiling. I knew she already was quite acquainted with that activity. Melanie had recently described the experience when she made out with Bobby Lester in his basement den. I had seen Haylee’s eyes brighten when Melanie described how it had taken her breath away. She was bragging about how far she had gone. She told us that if Bobby hadn’t gotten excited so quickly, she might have gone further. She even knew the term for it, premature ejaculation. “So if we say PE, Kaylee,” Melanie had said, turning to me with a wide smile smeared like whipped cream on her face, “we don’t mean physical education class.”
Of course, everyone had laughed, mostly at me. Even Haylee had laughed at me. I felt like bringing that up right now but kept my mouth shut.
“Yes, Haylee. It’s part of foreplay,” Mother said.
“Why four?” Haylee asked, grimacing.