Mom said, “There are things a big boy like you needs to know.” I wanted to say, no there aren’t, but I just stood still. Mom went on. “You are at that special age now where you are going to go through some dramatic physical changes in your body. Changes that we need to talk about and you don’t need to ever feel embarrassed of.”

“I know, Mom, you already told me. Can I get unpacked and go and see if Gino’s in his studio?”

Mom acted as if she hadn’t heard me and kept right on talking. “Sex is a marvelous gift,” she said, “we don’t have to be ashamed of it.”

I wished we didn’t have to discuss it either, so I started moving toward the door, but Mom said, “Let’s finish our little talk, then you can go.” I waited, hoping she wouldn’t use too many personal examples in our discussion she was having. “When your father and I were first married, he had so little knowledge about the physical aspect of marriage, I had to show him practically everything. You know how Grandmother is! But when you get married, because we’ve had our frank talks together over the years, and I’ve been a better mother to you than his mother was to him, you’ll know a lot more about the precious gift of the physical side of marriage than he did on our wedding night.”

“Please, Mom!” I said. “Can I go see Gino now?”

“There will be an enlargement of your testes,” Mom said. “That’s because they will start to produce the millions of wonderful little seeds that are for fertilizing the precious egg your wife produces.” Mom didn’t seem to notice I wasn’t married yet.

“God has already chosen the precious egg to be your child.” Why was she talking about my wife and child? I was going to turn fourteen next week. Was Mom really going loopy? If so, what could Rachael and me do? Would Janet react to Moms lunacy by kicking me to death?

“You have noticed that you have begun to develop a little bodily hair, what we call ‘pubic hair,’ around your Little Thing.” I wondered who “we” were who had noticed the hair I had growing around my nuts. Did Mom have friends who came over to watch me take baths through the keyhole? Did they compare notes on how much bodily hair I had compared to their kids?

“You will have also begun to notice your feelings changing. You will have begun to feel differently toward girls and women. When you look at a girl now you will have certain desires that might frighten you, but we will discuss them and that way you can ask me all your questions.”

“Yes, Mom, thanks, I understand now.”