Frederick Laughton - Bookstore for boys

It was with increasing apprehension that Jennifer awaited her after-closing engagement with Skip Palmer the next day. She still wasn't sure what it was that had prompted her to make her offer to go through The Joy of Sex with him. She hadn't even thought about the lack of wisdom in her proposal until the words were out of her mouth, and by then it was too late for her to back out.

Nor had she been encouraged by her hasty reading, last night, of the book itself. Though it was not really dirty, at least not in the sense of a dirty joke, it was explicit. It left very little to the imagination, and in spite of her own high moral standards even Jennifer had found some of the passages hard to resist. She could not help remembering the happier times in her own married life, when she and Stephan had made each other happy, when they'd done little things almost exactly as they were described in the book. And the recollection tapped an unfulfilled source of longing deep within her body. The Joy of Sex, she had to admit, was a compelling piece of literature. But she still didn't have the slightest idea how she was going to bring herself to go through it with Skip Palmer.

As six o'clock neared, the blonde divorcee found herself hoping that the young boy would not make his appearance, hoping he would be just as nervous as she and would finally not have the nerve to come back. But as the hour came and passed, she felt a twinge of inexplicable disappointment. Instead of seizing the opportunity to close the shop and leave, she sat mutely, still waiting. Perhaps fifteen minutes passed, then she started as the door opened and the handsome youngster came rushing in.

"I'm sorry I'm late," he blurted. "My grandmother had some errands for me to do."

"That's… all right, Skip," Jennifer said slowly. She was sitting on the stool behind the counter, her legs crossed and her modest length skirt smoothed gently down over her sensuous thighs. Skip was standing across the counter, waiting in silence. She thought a long time must have passed before she realized she was staring at him. "Oh!" the older woman said suddenly, shifting on the stool. "Let me close up and then we'll get to… to the book."

Conscious of the boy's eyes on the curves of her shapely body, Jennifer moved from behind the counter, went and locked the front door and drew the shades over the windows. Then she hesitantly led Skip back through the curtain and into the little room at the back of the shop, where the book The Joy of Sex, lay already open on the coffee table before the couch, turned to a chapter entitled Caresses for Building Excitement.

"All right, Skip," the nervous blonde said. "I suppose we should both sit on the couch so we can… so we can look at the book together."

"Yes, ma'am!" Skip replied with almost too much enthusiasm.

Jennifer looked at the teenager apprehensively for an instant before moving to take a seat. He came quickly around to join her, his eyes eagerly taking in the color photo of a man kissing a woman on the neck on the page to which the book was opened.

Crossing her legs and smoothing her skirt down to her knees, the uneasy blonde cleared her throat. "All right, Skip. I must admit I hardly know where to begin but…"

"You can begin wherever you want to. It's all interesting to me."

"Yes, I'm… sure it is." Jennifer glanced down at the photograph, then started to skim over the introduction to the chapter she'd selected. "As I told you yesterday," she began, "I'm afraid most of the material in this book will be irrelevant to your situation."

"My situation?"

"I mean, most of this is for married people. As a junior high school student, you're just not going to be going that far. But this chapter does describe what I think you call petting, and I suppose it would be futile to attempt to discourage even a boy as young as you from wanting to try that."

"Petting?" Skip asked, momentarily puzzled, then quickly added: "Oh, like making out, you meant."

"Yes," Jennifer replied. "I guess that's what you call it now." She coughed self-consciously. "All right… uh… tell me, Skip. Have you ever done that? Have you made out with a girl?"

Skip's mouth opened. It appeared he was about to speak, that the words faded on his very lips the moment they would have been voiced. His face reddened slightly and as she glanced down Jennifer saw that his hand was trembling. "Almost," he said at last in a croak.

"Almost? I don't know if I understand."

"That's the real reason I came to buy the book."

"What do you mean?"

"There's a girl I know… she's fifteen because she failed a year. Her name's Ramona Sawyer, and I don't think she's too good looking, not in the face anyway. But she's got… she's got, you know, titties and everything."

"Skip!"

"And she… she goes out with Tony Jackson and Fred McGuiness and some of those guys. Sometimes she even goes with a couple of them at once."

Jennifer blinked, shocked at the implications in that remark. She could remember hearing one of the more aggressive and flirtatious of the boys who'd come into the store being called Tony, and she was pretty sure that that was the boy Skip was referring to.

"Anyway," Skip continued, "she invited me to go down into the basement of the gym with her one day during lunch. I knew Tony and those fellows took her down there sometimes to make out with her and everything so I figured it was my big chance. But when we got there, I didn't know what to do."

Skip shook his head, then angrily slammed his fist into the palm of his hand. And the look in his eyes as he lifted them to Jennifer's face filled her with such emotion and compassion it was all she could do to keep herself from taking him immediately in her arms. "She just stood there with her arms open, grinning at me, and said, 'Let's do it!' And I couldn't figure out what to do. I sort of tried to kiss her. I could remember the way I used to kiss my mother when I was little, so I did it that way. But I know that's not the right way, and when I was through she just laughed at me and asked if that was all I was going to do. And I asked her what she wanted to do. And then… and then they all started laughing. All the guys. They were hiding down there watching me."

"Oh Skip, they're so cruel!" Jennifer gasped. "But don't you let that upset you. That was really nothing and…"

"And I'm a nothing. I'm a big fat zero and all the guys know it. Everybody in the whole darned school!"

"That's not true."

"That's what all the girls think too."

Jennifer couldn't resist reaching over to touch Skip on the wrist as she spoke. "I'm a girl, Skip. And I don't think that."

"You don't?" Skip gasped, staring up at her in disbelief. His heart was suddenly beating wildly in his chest, but he shook his head miserably, certain the attractive older woman was just saying what she'd said because she felt sorry for him.

"And I bet there are a lot of girls at that school who really like you. They just don't know how to let you know. You've got to learn to spot them, and then when you find one of them that you like, you encourage her to make her feelings known." Jennifer paused, her hand now dropping to Skip's knee, her blue eyes luminous under her thick lashes as she stared into his surprised face. "And when you find a girl you like, really like, you won't have the problem you had with that Ramona what's-her-name. You'll know instinctively what to do."

Skip's eyes again revealed a ray of hope. And again he shook his head. "You're talking to me like I'm a kid, because that's what I am to you. Just a stupid little kid."

"No, Skip. And I'm not that old. I'm only twenty-four." Jennifer fell suddenly silent. How old would twenty-four seem to a boy Skip's age? "Or maybe you do think I'm old."