Looking back, I suppose the symbolism was pretty strong.Looking back, I suppose the symbolism was pretty strong. She went back to staring out the window and I realized that I was going to have to speak first. "Kelli," I began, "I'm really sorry about what just happened. I did not mean for you to see me like that." She said nothing for a moment, and I was about to try and phrase it another way when she said: "I know. I'm always doing that." Doing what? Making grown men jack off? "Always doing what?" "Always interrupting private stuff. Like with my mom and dad." She looked terribly glum. "You walked in on them in bed?" "They weren't in bed - they were in front of the fireplace and I just wanted to get my Tiger Beat that I'd left on the TV set and I walked in and saw them.... doing it. Sort of." "Oh." Sort of? How can you do it `sort of'? "Anyway, my dad got really mad and told me I was a peeking tom and mom got even madder and wouldn't talk to me." Her face dropped from glum to positively sad and I felt truly sorry for her, though her reference to `peeking tom' was cute enough to make me smile a little. "Well, you couldn't help it. You didn't know." "Another time," she continued, almost ignoring me, "was with Jenny, our old babysitter. I came downstairs late because I forgot to take my vitamin B for flea bites and I saw her with this boy... on the stairs. I had never seen the boy before, but they were doing stuff and they got really mad too. They made me promise not to tell or they'd tell my parents I was touching myself or something. |