C4 antho - Chamber Four

Seven Little Stories About Sex
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by Eric Freeze
from Boston Review
The boy’s first French kiss was with a teddy bear. Her
name was Melissa. She had blue fur, like shag carpet, two
dimples for eyes, and a plastic one-piece nose and mouth.
His brother told him, this is how it’s done. You put your
tongue in their mouth and move it around. You need to know
how to do it right when you get a girl. So the boy held
Melissa’s head with both hands and licked the plastic slot
that was Melissa’s mouth. His tongue dipped down like a
hummingbird darting into the throat of a flower, slurping up
nectar.
* * * *
Every month, the boy had an interview with his father.
His father wrote down their conversation and made a list of
goals to accomplish. The father wrote, “Have homework
done every day by five. Get above 90% on the next math
test.” And always, “Read the Bible.”
Once, the boy’s father talked about being in graduate
school. He opened one of his mile-thick textbooks filled with
diagrams and equations. His father had a pad of paper on his
knees and he drew what looked like a sports play, with arrows
and circles and squiggly lines. The boy moved his chair
so he was looking at the shapes from the same angle. His father
wrote “meiosis” in block letters, then “woman” next to a
large round circle and “man” next to one of the squiggly
lines. Then “sperm” and “egg.” He wrote these down in no