CHAPTER 5
THE ENTRY THAT NEVER EXITS
That father said he was going to teach us about the birds and bees and how God made us to like girls. God made parts of our bodies differently from girls and we were supposed to be together as partners. He talked more about when he was young and how he liked girls. He got to know mother as they went to the same school and lived near each other. As we listened, we were happy to be talking with that father as he was in a happy peaceful mood while mother was taking care of Kevin and Bernadette.
During the weekend he told us that when we do find that right girl, we would fall in love and we would want to spend rest of our lives with that girl. “Now you first have to know you have feelings for her and she has them for you,” that father said. When you see the girl, it will hit you like a tingling feeling inside while you are starring at a her or find yourself smiling every time you see her.
As it was getting later into the afternoon, mother wanted us to go eat lunch as that father said he would talk to us more later. It was a great time in our house; that father and sons talking in a civil voice and it was exactly what we all needed.
Later that evening he got us together talking again saying “You will do some unusual things that will make a girl think you are and that is not a good way to get a girl to like you, so the best thing you can do is just walk by her and say hi or ask her what her name is.” Then that father said it now it was time to talk about our bodies.
During the weekend, that father said he wanted to speak with each of us one on one about our hygiene. He said he wanted to talk to me first, then Jevone and last Terance. He wanted to let us know that we can't have stinky draws and our bodies can't smell either like underarms and also wanted to make sure we were taking care of our teeth. I didn't know if he was just talking to me as I did have problems with my stomach and going to the bathroom a lot. That’s when he finally said it to me that you can't be messing up your clothes as I put my head down and was about to cry because he said “That is nasty to do at 14 years old -you’re too big to be having that happen and nobody will like you if you can't get it together! You will be picked on all the time by kids!” as he was telling me I should take care of myself better. He also told my brothers too, so we would look like clean boys to girls and also told us about talking to girls. Talk to them nicely and don’t be cussing like the kids do outside in the street. It seemed like a funny thing to say given how our parents would often speak to each other we still talk until it was getting late, we had dinner then had to get ready for school the next day.
On Monday I went to school feeling a little better about myself but still needed to stop messing up my clothes and draws. Walking home from school with my brothers, they saw girls that they liked but were too afraid to say anything.
Once we were home, that father wanted to talk to me more about the birds and bees in our room. He asked me if I liked anybody in my class and I said no. He said okay but started to tell me If I did like a girl my body would become excited but I didn't know what he meant by that so he just said it can get excited. He also explained that we have something inside our body that can make a girl have a family like our mother did and that was our first, real conversation about having a girlfriend. He then said he wanted to show me what he was talking and told me to take my draws off. This made me nervous and I was worried that I might have messed up my draws.