NaNoWriMo excerpt:
I'm about twelve, in Minnesota, babysitting three youngsters: Mikey, the baby from next door; and two young sisters, new to the neighborhood, about five and six. Mikey needs a diaper change, and I lay him down on a bed, guarded by pillows. Then I need something and the sisters are set to watch him while I run downstairs.
Sudden
shrieking and one of the girls runs down after me: Mikey has a thing in his butt!
Oh, she is so upset, so grossed out -- and I run up trying to imagine
what has happened. There is the baby, diaper falling open, perfectly
happy, playing with his feet and giggling, while the other sister looks
on in horror.
The thing in his butt is his penis. His tiny, innocent penis and balls.
But
these two girls have never seen anything like it, and they are
convinced he has something terribly wrong with him. Something
dangerous; something deadly; something ugly; something that does not
belong.
So much for penis envy.
And I, at twelve, am
confronted with explaining that the difference between boys and girls
has to do with more than clothes and haircuts.
I don't remember ever sitting for those sisters again. I no doubt lost my credibility as a safe and careful sitter.
RELATED POST: Pens & Meaning
PostScript:
It will be interesting to see what searches bring folks to this post, don't you think?
Also, a quick note on new features!
TypePad has implemented pagination, which means that you can now navigate Watermark from links at the bottom of post and category pages; and category pages won't be so long and slow to load. And, we now have feeds available for comments on specific posts. Yay!
Wow! Typepad is catching up to where WordPress was three years ago!
Posted by: Dave | 03 December 2007 at 09:05 PM
Dave! I write about penis envy, and you comment on blogging features?
You disappoint me.
Posted by: SB | 03 December 2007 at 09:57 PM
Those sisters are likely to be mothers now. Let's hope that somewhere along the line the scales fell from their eyes!
Posted by: Dick | 04 December 2007 at 07:41 AM
Heh. Well, if they are mothers now, one would assume...
Posted by: SB | 05 December 2007 at 08:55 PM