Sex Education

This story deals with sex in a non-pornographic manner. One "F" word may offend very sensitive people.

Mrs. McCormick looked up from her ironing board as her seven-year-old son, Seth, came bounding into the room. "How was your day at school?" she asked.

The youngster wrinkled his nose and flopped on the couch. After a moment he said, "Mom, I wann'a know something."

"Yes, son," the woman said. She wondered why he hadn't gone directly to the refrigerator like he usually did when he came in from school.

Seth fidgeted for a moment. "Mom," he began. Then after a long pause, "Mom, you always promised to answer any question I had."

"Yes, that's true."

"Well, I wann'a know something." He looked at the ceiling.

She stopped ironing and waited for her son to continue.

"What I wann'a know--" he started then paused. "I wann'a know something about girls." He dropped his head. "Girls are different than boys in a lot of ways, aren't they, mom?" He didn't look up.

The woman took a long slow breath, collecting her thoughts. She knew this day would come, but she just was not ready for it yet. "Yes, son," she began. "Girls are different. They--they--" She groped for words. "Biologically they are very different." She walked to the couch and sat on the arm. The boy did not look up.

"What I mean," she began again, "is that girls have to be different from boys because someday they'll be mothers."

The boy squirmed and kept his head down.

"You see," she said, "girls--women--are like birds. They have to have their eggs fertilized before they can have babies. It takes a male to fertilize the eggs." She hoped he would not want details. After a long pause she asked if he understood.

"Yes ma'am. I think so. Can I go play now?"

Mrs. McCormick watched her son trudge across the room. As he started through the front door she heard an excited child's voice from the porch asking, "Did you find out? Did she tell you?"

She tiptoed to the window in time to hear her son say in an exasperated tone, "No. All she wanted to talk about was the birds and bees."

"Shoot," the other boy said. "We already know about sex. What we want to know why girls don't fart."

Story ID:	3018
Written by:	James Baker (bio, contact, other stories)
Organization:	Writers' Circle
Story type:	Fiction
Location:	Small town Any USA
Year:	1950
Person:	Seth