Chapter 184 – When The Time Is Right

• “I was embarrassed,” he says, looking away from me again. “Because…when I came to the city and started watching TV, people of course talked about sex casually – that husbands and wives did it, and mates, and boyfriends and girlfriends. But…they talked about it like it was this big thing – especially losing your virginity, how intense and emotional and special it was. And I was so interested because I was like…well what the hell is that? What’s sex? What could it be? And then I saw some movies that showed people actually having sex…”
• His words fade off, and suddenly it all snaps together. “Oh,” I say, sitting up a little straighter. “And you realized that you’d…you’d done it before.”
• “Yeah,” he says, looking down at his hands. “And I felt…I don’t know, kind of robbed? Not by Tasha – but by the Community, by my education. I should have known that it was…important. That it was big. That it’s not something that most people casually do by the river, but it’s something that a lot of people understand as an act that…brings people together. People who love each other.”