Late one afternoon, I came home after painting scenery for a school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The boy playing Puck was a cute eighth grader I’d been flirty with, so I’d signed up for stage crew to be near him. I was in my bathroom, changing clothes for dinner when I noticed wet paint on the seat of my overalls. I took them off to discover the source of the red stain came from my underwear. My period. Yes! I couldn’t wait to tell Nicole, who hadn’t gotten hers yet. We were both sure she would be first because she already had boobs and pubic hair and I barely fit in a training bra. I changed my clothes, wadded a bunch of toilet paper into fresh underwear, and went downstairs. Trini, our housekeeper was in the kitchen washing lettuce and Lupe, our other housekeeper, was behind her in the laundry room.

“Anna? Donde esta?”

They pointed upstairs.

I found Anna in their bedroom pressing a pair of my father’s slacks on an ironing board. She never let anyone else iron Daddy’s clothing, saying she was the only one who “knew how Sidney likes his creases.”

“Um, I need to talk to you.”

She spritzed the pant leg and a cloud of steam rose around her. “Please sit.” She nodded to an upholstered bench at the foot of the bed. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, except I think I just got my period.”

She turned off the iron and sat next to me.

“You’re not going to slap me, are you?”

Anna’s eyebrows shot up. “Why I do such a thing?”

“I dunno. I read that it’s an old custom like in the Bible or someplace.”

“Really? I never read that.”

“A Jewish custom,” I explained. “Old Testament.”

“In my culture, is a good thing when a girl starts her menses. You are a woman. Are you having stomach paining?”

“Cramps, you mean? No. I just feel, I don’t know, kind of weird.”

“I had terrible pains. When I first get my period, my mother make me sopa de pollo—chicken soup. That a Jewish custom too, no?”

I laughed. “Only for colds or the flu.”

“Then my mother, she tell me, ‘Stay away from boys or I’ll keel you.’ And I was a behaved girl. I did stay away from boys. Until your Daddy.”

We locked eyes. I think we were both surprised by the intimacy of the moment, and for a moment, neither of us said anything. So, Anna had been a virgin before my father. I let the news register.

“Anyway, I just thought you should know.” I stood up, awkward now, wanting to ask her advice like what products to use, but I was afraid to embarrass her or myself more than I already had.