I smiled, and answered 'One of them is another teacher at the school. Another is a police officer with a college degree in criminology, in charge of the sex crimes unit. A third is a lawyer that represents abused women. The fourth is a child psychologist. The last is a newspaper reporter.'
He gave me a strange look, and asked 'What are their names?'
As I told him each name, he nodded – all of them, if not famous, were at least well-known in our city. Knowing what he did, then, he told me 'I hope that you won't take offense at this, but I and the others have been a little worried that perhaps you were using our daughters to form some kind of cult, or commune. It was a difficult idea, though – my own daughter speaks so highly of your wife, and I, myself, have spoken to a number of people that hold you in very high regard. When I expressed my worries to the Bishop, he laughed, and told me what you had done to help him with the school. But still, it is a difficult thing to understand.'
I laughed and told him 'I take no offense, Mister Delgado. I have children of my own, and if I were in the same situation, I would have worries, too. Come, and you can hear for yourself some of the things that they talk about here.'
I knew that even if the girls didn't have the sense to, Kelly would make sure the conversation stayed more-or- less neutral; I wasn't worried in the slightest about him hearing his daughter asking some of the things that I had. Sure enough, when we got to the doorway to the den, we could hear them talking about how the girls could make the best of college after they'd graduated high school. Kelly was giving them the benefit of her own experience, as well as warning them about some of the things that she'd seen other kids – particularly girls – doing. We listened for a couple of minutes before he touched my arm and gestured we should leave. We did, and I let him lead us to the front door where he took my hand and said 'I hear for myself that you and your wife are trying to do the right things by our daughters. I think that we will be quite safe trusting them to you and your wife, and I would like to apologize again for our unfounded suspicions.'
I assured him that no apologies were necessary, and thanked him for his trust. He hesitated a moment, then told me 'I am not from this country, Mister Marshall. I was born and raised in Colombia and came here when I was still a young man. I was lucky enough to find my wife while I was working in Louisiana, and have been blessed with my daughter, who makes me proud. What you do, it is a very special thing, even in this country; I know of no one in Colombia that would do such a thing. I will tell the other parents that you are an honorable man, and that they do not have to fear while their children are with you.'
'Thank you, Mister Delgado. Not only for your trust, but for your honesty. I am pleased to have been able to meet you.'
'And I, you' he replied before opening the door. We shook hands, and he left for the SUV I saw parked at the curb.
Back in the den, I smiled and nodded at Kelly from where the girls couldn't see me – her eyes twinkled in reply, but she continued to explain to Sheri that college was nothing like high school.
It was a little while later that Crissy spoke up to say 'Kelly, I was really surprised when you took off your clothes last time we were here. We' – she gestured to include the others – 'talked about it and we decided that we need to ask you something.'
'What's that?', Kelly asked.
With a pointed look at me, she said 'I don't think any of us is really sure that we're not different. You know, our, uh, bodies, I mean. When you took off your clothes, I couldn't help, you know, looking at you, and you don't look like the rest of us – just like none of us looks alike; well, except for me and Sheri.'
Kelly smiled and asked 'You didn't see the other girls when you were taking showers after gym class?'
To my amusement, all of them blushed before Claire spoke up to say 'Um, yeah, I did – but all of us were always in classes with the same girls, and its kind of hard to figure out where the 'normal' line is, you know?'
After a pointed look at me, Bonita told her 'We've had sleep overs at each others houses, and we've kind of compared, but we're all friends and we already know each other. And those of us that have computers at home, our parents have that monitoring software on them so they'll know if we try to find anything out on the Internet.'
It was Evelyn that finally came out and said 'What we're trying to say is that none of us is really sure that we're not, you know, weird or something. Not just our tops, but, um, between our legs, too.'
Kelly looked at them for a moment before answering 'I noticed that you kept looking at Dan while you were talking about this. Why?'
The lot of them fidgeted for a little bit before Sheri answered 'Well, he's a guy, and I don't know what he's going to say or do – and its kind of embarrassing to be talking about our bodies, you know, our breasts and between our legs, in front of him.', followed by the others nodding their agreement.
Kelly nodded her understanding, then told them 'Okay, I can understand that. But what you have to understand is that Dan is here just because he is a guy. He can answer and explain things from a perspective that none of us, as a female, has. Do you think he could have any idea of what its like to have a period?' They all shook their heads, and Kelly went on 'for the same reason, none of us can really know what a guys perspective is about some of the questions you've asked, and things that you might want to talk about.' All of them nodded their heads in understanding before Kelly told them 'When I and my friends had the same questions you girls do, it was Dan that got the first of us started by suggesting what we called an 'anatomy lesson' – where we not only learned about our own bodies, but got to find out how they compared to others. Not just our breasts, but between our legs – on the outside, at least. And as you can see, Dan is older than the rest of us – he has a lot more experience and knows a lot more than we do, too; so he was also able to talk to us and explain how we 'fit in' with other girls. All of us were pretty nervous about it at first, but not once did Dan do or say anything to make us embarrassed or ashamed, even though we were all naked. In fact, a couple of us kind of had to push him a little bit because he was reluctant to do or say something that he thought might bother us. So what I'm going to do is offer YOU the chance to have one of these 'anatomy lessons' – but I have to tell you right now that it isn't going to be with each of you one at a time. If you want one, you're going to have it at the same time as anyone else that does. You also have to know that Dan will be here, too – for the same reasons he was there for the lessons I and my friends had: because of what he knows, and to give you his 'guy' opinion. He will not touch you in any way that you don't approve of, and he will not say anything to any of you that would make you hurt or angry. If it helps any, I'll be naked right along with anyone else that wants the lesson. If you don't want to join in the lesson, then all you have to do is say so and you'll be excused. So what I want all of you to do is sit there and decide if you want the lesson, or not. And while you're doing that, I want you to remember how Dan acted last time, when all of you were only wearing your underwear, and decide if you really think that you have to be worried about what he'll say or do. If you decide you don't want the lesson, Dan and I will be in the kitchen; just come in there.'
With that, Kelly and I got up; I picked up the tray that had the drinks on it, and the two of us went into the kitchen. Once we were there, I got some more drinks for the kids while Kelly started a fresh pot of coffee for us. By the time the coffee was done, none of the girls had joined us; we waited a while longer before we heard Crissy call out to us 'Kelly? Dan? You can come back in, now.'
Kelly and I gave each other a look, and headed back for the den, with me carrying the tray. When we got there, we saw that all of them had opted to take Kelly up on the 'anatomy lesson' – all five were sitting there stark naked. Visibly nervous, but naked.
When Kelly saw them, she didn't say a word – she simply stopped where she was, took off the blouse and slacks she was wearing and set them aside, so that she was nude, too. She turned to me and took the tray before telling me 'We'll need some diagrams and a hand mirror.' I nodded, and headed to my office to get a couple of female drawings off the Internet; while those were printing out, I got the large hand mirror Kelly had. With everything in hand, I went back into the den where Kelly was explaining to them what was going to happen.
When she saw me, Kelly told them 'I'm going to start, so that all of you can see that there's nothing to be ashamed about, and so that you can see for yourselves how I compare to the drawings that Dan has. Dan is going to hold that mirror for me, so I can see things between my legs better while I point to things and explain them. He'll also be holding the mirror for each of you. Dan is going to keep his clothes on so that you don't get… 'distracted', and so you know that you don't have to worry about him 'doing' anything. Is everybody ready, then?'
All of them said they were, so Kelly got them all seated on the floor, then took a position across from them. I handed the youngsters the female diagrams, then sat off to the side, figuring Kelly would start with the most obvious stuff to try and help them relax. For my part, I kept my attention on Kelly for the same reason.
The first part of it went by easily enough – between the drawings and being able to really look at Kelly as she unashamedly explained about breasts and areolas and nipples, it didn't really take very long. When she got to the
