Ghost Story

[Carver Amell]

Carol hasn't spoken in days, the entry begins. I'm worried about her. Ever since that incident in school...

Car had been too young for the education, but the travelling scholar was only in town every few years, and there was only one room in the schoolhouse. The very youngest kids had been taken out to the woods to look for frogs, but Car and Beth were allowed to stay with the older students and receive the education: a birds and bees talk, one about how they'd grow up to be mommies and daddies, and a brief poetic description of how mommies and daddies got to be that way.

Car's eyes grew wider and wider as the talk went on. Someday a man will what?! in my where?! And I'll have to... to be a mommy? It just didn't sit right. It didn't fit. There had to be something else, some way to escape this. There just had to be. 

When there was a pause for questions, Car's hand shot up. "What if I don't want to be a mommy?" she asked, fear causing her voice to tremble.

[Bethany]

Why not? Beth wonders, blinking as she stares at her twin. Astea is a mommy and Astea's the best. 

[Jessica Alton]

The guest lecturer, a tutor from the city who grew up in a village a few days past Golden Shores, offers a gentle smile. "Not all women become mommies, no. Some enter a clergy and decided to devote themselves utterly to their Goddess or God. Others simply never have the chance. But you're still very young; your feelings now won't be what you feel in the future."

[Carver Amell]

"What if I don't wanna be a, a woman?" Car asks, more urgently. "can't I just stay a kid?"

[Jessica Alton]

"Oh sweetheart," Mde Alton says kindly. "Everyone has to grow up eventually. It can be scary, I know, but it'll be okay." Ugh. I told them seven is too early for the full talk. Pregnancy is terrifying to many grown adults, a little kid shouldn't have to learn about all the risks and pain.

[Carver Amell]

Car hasn't spoken since being told she'll have to grow up. She put her hand down, hung her head, and swallowed back the tears. 

Now, late at night, Beth can't sleep -- and neither can Car, judging by how the blankets are moving. Beth's twin is curled up entirely under the blanket, not even a head sticking out on the pillow, and there's sniffling sounds coming from underneath. 

[Bethany]

Bethie tries to hold out, she really does! She's gotten yelled at hundreds and hundreds of times for sneaking out of bed and she really does know she's not supposed to and she doesn't want to disobey but--

"Hey," she whispers softly as she tugs on her twin's blanket. "Bump over so's I can slip in."

[Carver Amell]

Car jumps a little, that guilty sort of jump at being caught. "Beth," she whispers, shifting over to let her into the blanket. Car's underthings are off, and she's curled up tight in a ball, her hand near her lap. "I can't reach."

[Bethany]

Bethie quickly slips into the bed, covering herself with the covers in an attempt to escape notice if their mom peeks in. Mari might too, but she'll just give Beth a sad look and point back to bed. "Reach what?" she whispers back, snuggling up to her twin.

[Carver Amell]

"Teacher said," and here she gives another sniffle. "Teacher said boys... put it there. I wanted to, I wanted to know if it hurts." 

[Bethany]

Put it there? Huh? Bethie scowls as she tries to follow along. Wanted to see Car's face, she clambers over her twin, uncaring of the invasion of personal space or their respective states of undress-- Bethie was broken of her habit of running about starkers when she was five (mostly), but she still strips naked as often as possible. "Boys put lots of stuff places. Tolly put a frog in my lunch last week. I punched him in the mouth, remember?"

[Carver Amell]

"I mean their... their... their penis," she whispers. "Remember?"

[Bethany]

"Ooooh. You mean how men put their penis in our, uh, vole-uhs," Bethie says brightly, nodding. "Sounds weird but Miss Wibbles seemed to like it." A beat and Bethie blushes. "Oops. I wasn't supposed to tell anyone 'bout that. Umm. What about penises?"

[Carver Amell]

"What?" whispers Car. "She... liked it?"

[Bethany]

Beth bites her lip. "Ya hafta promise not to tell anyone. Better than I didn't," she adds ruefully. After getting that assurance, she explains. "Yeah, she was all moaning and stuff. I thought it was bad? But she kept saying 'yes' and 'so good' and stuff like that and then she yelled all happy like, almost like Mari does when we do real good on our homework? Like cheering yelling. Mister Miller seemed to like it lots too." Her nose wrinkles. "They got real upset when I asked if Missus Miller shouts like that too. But they gave me a ribbon and some pie if I promised to not tell anyone."