Jamie Callan - Talk About Sex - An Orientation

My mother died this morning.

Did I mention that?

I said I wasn't going to reveal anything personal, but I thought you might like to know, since we're on the subject of mothers anyway. Everybody said to me, "Go to work-it'll take your mind off of it." So here I am. I loved my mother. I can imagine her in Tahiti right now. She taught me about sex. I probably have my professional life to thank her for. Sex, she said, is li\e ice cream. It tastes good for a while, but when all is said and done it's a sticky liquid mess and it gets all over the sheets.

I wish you had known her. I wish she had taught you about sex instead of me.

Kiss me.

Now.

Please. Kiss me.

I know it's against the rules. I know I said no touching, but my mother died today and your mother is in Tahiti. Do you remember the tune for Tom and Jerry} Would you sing it to me? Please.

That's right. Sing to me, and get me a drink. Make it hard- vodka on the rocks. And then, come here. And kiss me.

Oh, I'm sorry. Time's up.

Jamie Callan'swork has been published in Story, Buzz, American Letters and Commentary, and The Missouri Review. She teaches writing at Yale University, New York University, and Fairfield University. She's recently completed the novel Hollywood Slave Girl Tells All.

"Talk About Sex: An Orientation," by Jamie Callan, © 2000 by Jamie Callan, first appeared in The Missouri Review, vol. 23, no. 1 (University of Missouri, 2000). Reprinted by permission of the author.