"Good. I'm glad you came here," she said. She cut the bandage tape and pressed it neatly. "I was just as confused and afraid as you are when all this happened to me. One day I was playing with dolls and toy teacups and the next day, it seemed. I was worrying about getting pregnant. Danny Hopkins, one of the older boys in my school, tried to do it to me, you know,"
I shook my head. "Do what?"
"Put his thing in there," she said, nodding at my still exposed panties. "M-y- new best friend Gwen Edwards told him about me and he thought it would be funny. I suppose. He talked my brother Addison into bringing me over to his house to play Show Me."
"What's Show Me?"
"Show me yours and I'll show you mine. First, you flip a coin to see who goes first. I was a big curiosity to him, you see. Not much older than you are now, and growing boobs and stuff. He paid Addison off by giving him an electronic game, and Addison stayed in the other room playing it while Danny Hopkins got me to take off my panties. Don't trust any boys," she added quickly. "Not until you know a lot more and even then, don't believe any promises they make. You should learn about yourself with a girl like me and not take the chance of learning things from any boy, even your own brother. A boy's a boy's a boy," she sang, and smiled.
I stared at her. What she was saying frightened me a little but fascinated me, too.
"Look, a boy can talk you into letting him touch you here," she said, putting her fingers between my legs. "And it might seem harmless at first, but soon, you like how it feels and you let him do a little more and a little more and before you know it..."
"What?"
"He's trying to do what Danny tried to do to me and if he does, he could make you pregnant."
"You mean put tadpoles in there."
"Tadpoles? Oh, yes," she said, smiling. "Is that what Ian told you?"
I nodded.
"See he's just like any other boy. That sounds almost harmless. Tadpoles. Its not tadpoles, it's..."
"I know. Sperm," I said. I had just read it this morning in the book Ian had given me.
"So you know. Good. Let's see how far along you are," she said, and before I could stop her, she reached farther up to the elastic of my panties and brought them down enough for her to look. She nodded. "More than I had at your age.' she said, as if I had done something better. "I don't know if your doctor can turn this around. I didn't get a period like you did."
Then she touched me. "How does that feel?"
I didn't speak and she touched me again, keeping her fingers there and moving them until I did feel a tingling and a warmth that traveled so quickly up my body. I thought I had been electrically shocked. I practically leaped off the sofa.
She laughed as I pulled up my panties. ".Easy. That's nothing. If a boy did that to you, you would be in more trouble. Come on, sit down again," she said, patting the sofa where I had been.
"I gotta find Ian," I said. "My mother left the cabin and I have to tell him."
"Oh. Ian's out there somewhere looking for bugs or plants. You won't find him. Come on. Let me tell you more stuff you have to know,"
I shook my head. "I gotta find him." I started toward the door.
She stood up to block me. "You're not going to find him, Jordan."
"I gotta." I said.
She thought a moment and then smiled. "I'll tell you what. I'll go out with you in a while and help you look. Together, we'll find him. It will be too difficult for you by yourself."
I hesitated.
"You're not going to go running back through the woods by yourself again anyway, are you? If we don't find him, I'll walk you back to your cabin."
"You will?"
"Sure I will. I said I would." She grasped my wrist. "Sit on the sofa.I'll tell you more about what happened with Danny Hopkins. You want to hear about that, don't you? You want to learn about boys, right?"
"Yes," I said.
"Okay."