THEY’VE TAKEN ALL THE BOYS AWAY. IT IS time for sexual education.

I sit next to Sophia. We dart eyes at each other until the teacher walks in.

A diagram is on the wall, and it shows the female body, the muscles drawn in beautiful gray lines.

“Today,” the teacher says, “we’re going to learn about sex.”

Nervous laughter pecks up out of our throats. Sophia makes a gagging face at me.

“Now, this is what the inside of your body looks like,” the teacher says. “These organs here? They are how you become pregnant after intercourse.”

Another burst of laughter comes forward.

“Calm down, now calm down,” the teacher says. “We have to get through a lot today. Be mature here.”

The teacher glances over at me.

“Oh, oh, I should say,” the teacher says. “You’re something else altogether. I’m not sure how your body works. Maybe just ignore this.”

My throat closes up. I stare down at my desk. Sophia reaches over and pinches me. I look up.

“Fucking shithead,” she mouths at me.

“Now, when you have sex with a man, his sperm will travel up the vagina to the uterus then to the cervix,” the teacher continues. “If the ovary has created an egg and it is nearby, the sperm can swim to it and enter it. This is called fertilization, and we do not want it to happen. I simply cannot stress this enough.”

◆The uterus is roughly the shape and size of a small pear

◆In Ancient Greece, the uterus was believed to be an organ which wandered around the body, causing all emotional and physical female problems

◆Uterus didelphys is a rare condition which causes women to be born with two uteruses

◆One in 4,500 women are born without a uterus

◆The uterus is the only organ that can create an entire other organ; during pregnancy, the placenta is grown inside the uterus

WE ARE ALL PILED INTO THE TRUCK. MY mother sits up front next to my father, smoking. My brother stares out the window from the seat beside me as we cross the land.

“River day,” she hums. “Are you excited for river day?”

Dread takes root in my gut and grows.

“I don’t feel good,” I say. “I think I’m getting sick.”

The tar of my anxiety spreads through my veins.

“Can we just have a nice day?” my mother snaps.

“I’m sorry,” I say.

The river is crowded with the faces of people from town. I see Jarred across the water.

We strip to our swimsuits. Then my mother and I stand next to the river. I can feel the eyes of everyone around us on our knots, on my knot. I flush with shame.

“We came here to swim,” my mother says, voice like metal.

My mother pulls my hands from my stomach. We move to the water.

“Isn’t this nice?” my mother says, but there’s no joy to it.