Boys and girls in the bushes together.

Carl was down the hill, working in his garden, spading the soil, when his friend Ted walked around the barn toward the apple tree.  “Hey” Ted said.

“Hey yourself and see how you like it,” Carl answered.  Carl was trying to spade the soil to plant a garden.  He hoped to plant some seeds that his father had given him:  radishes, corn, beans, peas, squash.  Turns out this was hard work for a kid in the fifth grade.

“Come on over the other side of the bridge,” Ted urged.  “We’re getting some loving.”

“What’re you talking about?” Carl asked.

“We’re ‘getting it on’ over on the other side beyond the bushes,” Ted said carelessly.  “It’s me, Mike, my sister, and Neona.  Marge asked me to ask you to come over there.  She wants to ‘make out’ with you.”

Carl sort of had a crush on Margaret, or at least he did once.  She was his age.  Her brother Ted was a couple years older.

In fact, Carl had taken Margaret to a movie once last summer.  He couldn’t remember the movie at all because his finger had hurt so badly.  Cut it on the blade of a power lawnmower that same day and it throbbed.

Ted said, “You’ll see.  Follow.  Wait.  Gotta piss.”  That’s when Carl noticed that the older boy’s penis was way larger and darker than his own.  Carl couldn’t help being impressed.  He never noticed any of his friends’ penises looking like that before.

Carl and Ted walked across the bridge in the cool June sunshine and sure enough, once they got past the big bushes, they saw Ted’s sister; also, another shorter girl named Neona, and a freckle-face kid named Mike.  Mike was kissing Margaret on the mouth, taking a long time to do it.  After a couple minutes, Margaret and Mike separated and she asked Carl if he wouldn’t like to try kissing.  “It’s really fun!” Margaret said.

“Awwww, that’s okay,” said Carl.  “I don’t think I know how.”

“Just watch Mike,” Ted said.

Mike kissed Neona on the mouth, pulling her around to hold her against him.  Kind of like in the movies.  Again, the kiss lasted about half a minute.  Then Ted took a turn with Neona.

Carl couldn’t imagine doing or even wanting to do anything like that.

Margaret kissed Carl on the cheek as he turned to walk back toward the bridge, toward home.

Later, Ted jokingly asked Carl if he still wanted to screw his sister.

For years after, Carl thought “screwing” meant kissing a girl on the mouth while pulling her around.