The Beginning (Jessica Christ Book 1) Page 15

  The image of a dried up desert hellscape faded in from black and suddenly the word AIDS appeared on the screen, each letter drawn to look like it was covered in cracked skin.

  A gruff male voice began the narration. “By the time you know you have it, it’s already too late.” There was the sound of a man screaming in agony followed by a heart rate monitor beeping slowly and steadily. “It is a death sentence passed from one person to another through impure sex.” The heart rate monitor flatlined. “There is only one way to make sure you do not contract it, and that is abstinence.”

  UNLESS YOU’RE A DRUG USER OR SOMEONE WITH HIV RAPES YOU, OR YOUR OPEN WOUND PRESSES UP AGAINST THE OPEN WOUND OF SOMEONE INFECTED, OR REALLY, I COULD JUST GIVE IT TO PEOPLE. I’VE DONE IT BEFORE, AND I’D DO IT AGAIN.

  God droned on for most of the video, and by the end Jess felt like AIDS was probably an inevitable part of life. There was so many ways to get it, it seemed, despite the checklist of takeaways at the end:

  ✓AIDS originated from human-monkey intercourse

  ✓AIDS is spread through homosexual intercourse

  ✓AIDS is a death sentence

  ✓The two most affected communities are homosexuals and Africans

  “Okay!” Mrs. Thomas flipped on the light switch and turned to the class. “Any questions about AIDS?”

  Courtney raised her hand and was called on. “Why are there so many homosexuals in Africa?”

  Mrs. Thomas deflated and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Dr. Fractal? You want this one?”

  “Definitely.” The doctor stood up and cleared her throat. “To answer your question, Courtney, I can see where that video might have led you to believe, based on the tragically flawed logic it presented, that if AIDS is the disease of the gay community, and so many in Africa have it, that Africa must have a large gay community. That is not in fact accurate. The part about Africa having an AIDS epidemic is true, but not the part about AIDS being mostly contained within the gay community.”

  “Actually …” Mrs. Reyes stood and faced the class. “Let me clarify what the doctor is saying here.” She smiled at Dr. Fractal, who appeared too stunned to continue. “There’s a push by the leftist media to say that just about anyone could get AIDS, as if you could get it simply from standing too close to a gay man at a grocery store.” She chuckled. “But thank God that’s not true. People who have AIDS have either had sex with a man who chose to be gay or had sex with someone who had sex with a man who chose to be gay. Does that answer your question?”

  Courtney shook her head. “No.”

  Emma raised her arm up into the air and Mrs. Thomas sighed and pointed to her.

  “I have an uncle back in Cali who’s gay. Does that mean my uncle has AIDS, and if I shared a drink with him, could I have it too?”

  Mrs. Reyes looked like she was about to speak, but Dr. Fractal beat her to it. “No. Absolutely not. Not every gay man has AIDS. And I don’t know your history, but there is very little chance, statistically speaking, that you have AIDS. But if you are still concerned, ask your doctor about it.”

  “How about this,” Mrs. Reyes began. “Raise your hand if you’ve ever had sex.”

  “No!” Mrs. Thomas interjected. She turned to the class. “No one raise your hand.” She looked back at Mrs. Reyes. “Jamie, you can’t just ask that.”

  Mrs. Reyes shrugged. “Doesn’t matter if I know or not. God knows either way. He knows about what each and every person does behind closed doors.”

  IT’S TRUE. SHE HASN’T HAD SEX WITH HER HUSBAND IN SIX YEARS AND THREE MONTHS.

  “I hate to even ask,” said Mrs. Thomas, “but any other questions?”

  No one raised a hand. “Good. I mean, not ‘good,’ but ‘okay.’ So what we’re going to do is hand out these slips of paper, and you’ll write down any questions you might want to ask anonymously, meaning you don’t write your name on them and no one needs to know it was you who asked. Then we’ll mix them all up, and Dr. Fractal will go through and answer them.”

  “And Mrs. Reyes,” said Mrs. Reyes.

  Without missing a beat, Mrs. Thomas replied, “Actually, I think it would be best if we got a doctor’s perspective.”

  The skin around Mrs. Reyes’s lips tightened, and she inhaled deeply, puffing up and lifting her chin high. “The school hired me to oversee this because they didn’t want to give a secular doctor free rein to poison the minds of our daughters—”

  “I’m a Methodist,” Dr. Fractal said flatly. “So I’m not sure why you’re concerned.”

  Mrs. Reyes folded her arms across her chest. “Methodist! Hmph! Sounds about right.”

  Dr. Fractal did a good job of containing the anger Jess could feel radiating off of her in waves.

  Once Mrs. Thomas had finished handing out slips of paper, each girl got to work writing down her questions. Jess had a difficult time thinking of a good one, but ultimately settled on Are there ways to stop having your period?

  She folded the piece of paper in half and slipped it into the glass fishbowl Mrs. Thomas brought by on her way back up to the front of the room. Dr. Fractal reached inside the bowl and selected a question. Her eyes skimmed over it, then she sighed and her shoulders sagged before she read it aloud. “The question is, What is sex?”

  She looked sympathetically out onto her audience. “I feel like this is a realistic question, considering the information you’ve been provided. Sex, or the act of vaginal sex, is when the man’s penis become erect from arousal and penetrates—”

  “That’s enough,” said Mrs. Reyes curtly from beside the doctor. “That’s quite enough.”

  “What do you mean? I was just explaining sex in sex education …”

  “Yes.” Mrs. Reyes scoffed and looked uncomfortable. “Yes you were. This is not pornography education, Dr. Fractal.”

  “I don’t believe I was being pornographic. They’ve already learned about erections and vaginas. I’m just explaining the interaction between the two.”

  Mrs. Reyes scoffed. “I know that’s what you were doing, and using superfluous, titillating language, no less—”

  “That’s inaccurate. I was using scientific terminology …”

  IT’S WHEN A PENIS GOES INSIDE A VAGINA, JUST SO YOU KNOW.

  I got that. It wasn’t my question.

  YOU SHOULD LET YOUR CLASS KNOW.

  Uh, no.

  SORRY, LET ME REPHRASE. THOU SHALT LET THE CLASS KNOW.

  I hate you.

  “Hey, it’s when a penis goes inside a vagina,” Jessica blurted. The adults in the room jerked around to face her. Mrs. Thomas was smiling, Dr. Fractal was trying not to smile, and Mrs. Reyes’s mouth hung open in horror.

  “Can you believe her?” Mrs. Reyes said to Mrs. Thomas. “Are you going to just let her say that kind of filth?”

  Mrs. Thomas looked Mrs. Reyes in the eyes. “Yeah.”

  Mrs. Reyes huffed a bit, then returned to her seat, grabbed her phone from her purse and began texting excitedly.

  “Next question!” said Dr. Fractal, more energetically. She opened the next slip of paper and immediately began reading it aloud. “What is … Oh, that’s the same question. Um … Yeah, so it’s when a man puts his penis in a woman’s vagina. Essentially. There’s a little more to it, but we’ll start with that.” Her eyes darted over toward Mrs. Reyes, who was still angrily texting and shaking her head slowly.

  Dr. Fractal shrugged it off, unfolded another question—“Same question. Okay …”—went through a few more slips and then finally got to a different one. “Ah, here we are. How does pregnancy happen?” She nodded approvingly. “This is a good one to know. During sex, the male’s penis is stimulated from the friction of the movement in and out of the woman’s vagina—”

  “Pornography!” Mrs. Reyes exclaimed from her chair without bothering to look up from her phone.

  “Anyway. After enough stimulation, the male will ejaculate and semen will be released from his penis and flow into the woman’s vaginal canal
…”

  Jess continued to listen to Dr. Fractal with rapt interest. There was something entrancing about the woman’s voice when describing science. She would make a good narrator for a nature show. Maybe not David Attenborough good, but good enough that Jess could imagine listening to her talk about arctic foxes or bottlenose dolphins for a couple hours, no problem.

  “Does a baby happen every time?” Miranda asked from beside her.

  “There are many ways to avoid pregnancy, but if you don’t practice any of them, there is a good chance that not only will you become pregnant, but you’ve put yourself at risk of contracting an infection or disease.”

  “Like AIDS?” asked Stephanie from a few rows over.

  Dr. Fractal conceded that with a nod. “Yeah, that’s entirely possible. But more likely you’ll contract a treatable infection like—”

  “Okay!” Mrs. Reyes set her phone down on the chair and popped up. “I hope you’ve gotten your fill of pornography, because I’m now finished reporting this pervert to the White Light Sex Education Committee, and I’ll take it from here.” She reached into the bowl and pulled out a slip of paper, reading it, shaking her head disapprovingly, and tossing it into the discard pile before drawing another. “Ah, this one is good. It says, Are there other diseases I can get from sex? The answer is absolutely. There are more diseases that can be passed through sex than can’t be passed through sex.”

  Dr. Fractal positioned herself behind Mrs. Reyes so that she could shake her head at the class and mouth, Not true, without the other woman noticing.

  “And I actually have a slideshow of this very thing, which we were going to get to in a bit, but I think now’s a good time as well.”

  Something tugged at Jessica’s memory. Then she remembered. Her mother had mentioned the slideshow. She tried to think of what she’d eaten for breakfast and whether it might be digested by now, and as she did, the slideshow began. Each image lasted only about three seconds and included a close-up of first a vagina then a penis and testicles with the corresponding disease listed in captions at the bottom of the frame.

  Girls started screaming and retching as the bumps and discoloration on each genital grew steadily more alarming.

  “All these people had sex before marriage,” Mrs. Reyes proclaimed. “All of them said, ‘What harm could it do? It’s just the tip. God will forgive me.’ And all of them were wrong.”

  MAKE IT STOP!

  No, You make it stop! You’re God!

  RIGHT.

  The images disappeared from the screen, replaced by an error message apologizing for PowerPoint’s sudden failure.

  The class expressed its relief through groans and cheers, with Courtney even shouting, “Praise Jesus!” Jess wanted to tell her that it was not actually Jesus but God who deserved the praise and that the two were distinct things, but she didn’t feel like starting an argument when everyone was suddenly feeling so united under one banner of nausea.

  Mrs. Reyes scurried toward Mrs. Thomas’s laptop and tried to solve the technical issues, but Mrs. Thomas blocked her out. “It does that sometimes. It won’t work again until tomorrow, I’m afraid.” She slammed the laptop shut and the projection on the whiteboard turned to solid blue.

  Courtney raised her hand and Dr. Fractal pointed to her.

  “What happens if you do wait until marriage and then the person you marry has a disease? How do you keep from getting it?”

  Mrs. Reyes intercepted the question, but gazed at Courtney sweetly. “That’s why you need to make sure you marry a good man. A good man will not have slept around with the necessary prostitutes or—God forbid—gay men needed to contract one of these diseases. If he’s pure of heart and body like you, there’s no need to worry.” She smiled reassuringly.

  Dr. Fractal inserted herself between Mrs. Reyes and the class. “Or you could just get tested together. It’s not the most romantic thing, but it’s responsible. Most of the horrific things you saw on the slideshow are actually curable or at least treatable. And then there’s always condoms.”

  “Whoa!” Mrs. Reyes smacked Dr. Fractal on the arm, and Jess worried the doctor might hit her back. “Stop right there. This is abstinence sex education, not Promiscuity 101. Plus, everyone knows that those sin balloons are more likely to break, resulting in pregnancy, than they are to not break.”

  The blood drained from Dr. Fractal’s face. “That’s unequivocally false.”

  Jess was pretty sure there was about to be a fight. If Dr. Fractal had been Destinee, there would have already been one.

  YOU HAVE THE POWER TO STOP THIS, YOU KNOW.

  Are you kidding me? No I don’t.

  YOU’RE MY DAUGHTER. THEY’LL LISTEN TO YOU.

  What do I say? I don’t know anything about sex.

  TELL THEM THE TRUTH. REMIND THEM YOU’RE THE DAUGHTER OF GOD AND THAT I DON’T REALLY CARE THAT MUCH IF THEY HAVE SEX BEFORE MARRIAGE, AS LONG AS IT’S CONSENSUAL AND RESPECTFUL AND THERE ARE NO NON-HUMAN ANIMALS INVOLVED.

  They’ll never believe me.

  THAT DOESN’T MAKE IT LESS TRUE.

  Please don’t make me say it.

  For a moment she thought He’d disappeared again.

  THOU SHALT SAY IT.

  Dammit.

  Jess sighed heavily. She was walking into a trap, but knowing that didn’t mean she could stop it without grave consequences. Who knew what God would do to the people around her if she defied another “thou shalt” order?

  She clenched her fingers into fists and then spoke loud enough to be heard over Dr. Fractal and Mrs. Reyes as God mercifully fed her the words.

  “God says sex that lacks respect and consent, no matter within or without the bonds of marriage is a sin. But respectful, consensual sex, whether within or without the bonds of marriage is not something to get all worked up about.”

  She paused. Please don’t make me say that.

  SAY IT.

  “What we should really be concerning ourselves with is earthquakes in Asia. They’re out of control lately. Why is no one west of the Urals talking about this?”

  The room was dead silent by the time she finished, and she kept her eyes focused on the blue projection to avoid looking at any one person.

  YOU DID WELL.

  Let me repeat. I hate you.

  Mrs. Reyes was the first to break the silence. “Well there you have it. The False Prophet, the daughter of a single mother, the product of promiscuity has spoken.”

  “I am not a false prophet.” Jess dug her fingernails into her palms to brace herself against the wrath that was flooding into her vicariously from God. She wanted to add And my mother was not promiscuous, but she already knew that to be untrue.

  “Oh really?” Mrs. Reyes said. “That’s interesting, because a real prophet said you were a false one.”

  There was a prophet running around somewhere? “Who are you talking about?” Then it dawned on her. “Wait. Not Jimmy.”

  “Absolutely. And it shows what kind of person you are that you’d presume to be on a first-name basis with him. It’s Reverend Dean.”

  “All right.” Mrs. Thomas stood from her desk. “Enough of you.” She walked past Mrs. Reyes and grabbed the woman’s purse from beside her chair, carrying it over to the classroom door, which she opened before turning to stare expectantly at Mrs. Reyes. When the woman didn’t react, Mrs. Thomas added, “Is it just sex you don’t understand, or are hints a mystery to you, too?”

  It finally seemed to click with Mrs. Reyes, and she sucked in air sharply but said nothing as she headed toward the door. Then, before she shut it behind her, she turned to Mrs. Thomas one last time. “You’ll be hearing about this, I assure you. Principal Mallard is a devout member of the church.” Then her eyes landed on Courtney and she added, “And I’ll be informing your mother about the smut they’re teaching you in school. If you had any desire to remain pure, you’d follow me out this door, child.”

  Jess turned to look at Courtney, who was wide-eyed and terrifi
ed. She almost felt for her. It was obvious the Wurst girl was caught between getting an earful from her mother and ruining her social standing with Emma, Sandra, and the rest. But social standing won out almost immediately, and when Courtney didn’t stand and grab her backpack, Mrs. Reyes huffed and harrumphed, and then turned, nose in the air and strutted out of the room.

  Mrs. Thomas shut the door remorselessly then turned back to the class. “Okay. So where were we? More questions. Dr. Fractal? Will you do us the pleasure?”

  “Oh I wouldn’t dare,” Dr. Fractal replied, feigning scandal. “This is sex we’re talking about, not pleasure. This is not pornography class.”

  Mrs. Thomas actually cackled at that, an uncharacteristic sound that Jess couldn’t remember hearing from her before. “Okay. Next question.” And the doctor reached into the fish bowl again.

  With the new staffing arrangement, the experience became drastically more informative and less uncomfortable. Mrs. Thomas passed out another round of paper slips for any follow-up questions, and Jess finally began to understand how sex worked and how she could keep it from ruining her life.

  The concept was still pretty gross, but it wasn’t that gross. It was difficult for her to focus on it too much, though, with the new accusations running figure eights inside her head …

  Jimmy now called himself a prophet? That seemed a little over the top. And since when did he decide he was one? Even more confusing was the reminder that while Courtney ran with Jess’s group of friends, and might even make the top ten list of her friends, thanks to the small population of Mooretown, Courtney nonetheless believed that Jess was a false prophet and was therefore going to Hell. Why did that bother her so much? Jess knew she wasn’t going to Hell. She was the daughter of God. She didn’t know much about the Bible, but she was pretty sure God would never cast any of those closest to him down into the pit of fire …

  By the time Dr. Fractal had cleared up the misunderstanding of how many holes women actually had down south and what each of them were for, it was already time for lunch. Why the free-for-all that was lunch was the place where girls and boys were supposed to mix for the first time after learning about their bodies, Jess wasn’t sure. It seemed entirely ill advised.