When You Are With Me

3 - Love of a different form

Anirudh's mind went empty. His eyes flashed a few times. It felt like his sentences were on vacation.
"Can you tell me? Say something. Sakhababu!" She sulked curiously.

She queried a basic question. It's an act of their inquisitive nature. It is not shameful, it's a taboo that people hesitate to provide proper sex education to folks.

When it is said that fairies implant babies, children may mistakenly wonder if sleeping next to someone of the opposite sex can lead to pregnancy.

Anirudh recalled when he was a child wondering about things similar to Bondita's wonderland. No one taught him about it. He was sent to London at a tender age, away from his family. He had to figure things out himself as he was too a curious teenager. Which eventually led to stupid consequences. He still feels very silly about himself remembering that time.

But Bondita is a maturing woman, she needs to know the changes and the reason behind them. He requires to teach her because he doesn't want her to the same mistakes he did. Plus, she is going to stay in the hostel, and she ought to be aware of things.

Rolling his eyes, Anirudh took a sharp breath, summoning audacity.
He tore a page out of her new workbook. "Sit here." He asked her to sit next to him on the bed.

He placed the paper on his thigh, he drew the diagram of the female reproductive part on it. He labelled uterus, oviduct, ovary and cervix.

She sat right next to him, peeking at the paper inquisitively. Encircling her tiny arm around his. Her cheek pressed onto his arm. He peered at her and gulped.

"Bondita... remember one day I showed you human body organs?" He implored. She nodded.

"See...this is the female reproductive system which is inside every girl", he pointed the pen at the label.

"Each month the ovaries prepare themselves to release an egg. This egg goes through the oviduct to the uterus" He placed the tip of the pen over the uterus lining. "Here this egg embeds itself at this lining in the process called implantation. But this egg can't turn into a baby it sheds fluids through the cervix which are unwanted at that time. Causing you to get a period"

Bondita felt a sensation in her system.
A sudden heat rose in her belly. She ignored.

"But sometimes the lining doesn't get shed. Then pregnancy occurs, and the blood helps to nourish the zygote. It gradually develops into a fetus and out of that comes a baby" he explained, looking at her, wincing.

"But, how the body gets zygote? Is it automatic like yeast growth in the summer? Or someone germinates a baby seed in the tummy?" she asked curiously.

He smiled slightly, "No, it's... it's," and began trying to find the words.
"When two people . . . a man and a woman love each other. Usually, between husband and wife" he added firmly.

She removed her face from his arm, jerking.

"But I love you! And I've loved you before" she pouted sullenly.
He flinched at her innocence.

You don't know the weight of your words Bondita, he thought. He gritted his teeth in disappointment.

"Then why didn't I get pregnant?" Her puppy eyes glittered. Anirudh's eyes widened. He started coughing.

Her statements are scary.

Bondita.. you are very small to understand love and its stages. Don't claim us like that. I and you are different. Years later when we meet, you will surely have someone with you to spend your whole life with, The one you will fall in love with, he thought.

And he will embrace celibacy. His heart ached.

She stroked his back comfortingly.
"Water?" she asked in a worried tone.

"No I'm fine", He sat on his knees on the floor, keeping some distance between them.

"It's a love that has a different form. Remember I once told you about good touch and bad touch" he informed.

"Yes yes ... If a person's touch doesn't feel bad, doesn't cause problems, doesn't feel strange. If, on the contrary, you feel love when you are close to that person, then that person's touch is good. On the other hand, a person's touch feels uneasy, there's hatred in your head, when you feel like walking away from that person," she said when he joined her. "Then his touch is bad," they both said in unison. He cackled at her with a smile as it was a very memorable moment for them.

"Shabash" he exclaimed.

"Bondita... When a loved one loves us in a different form. When they come together... with the intensity you say" His face flushed. "Then this love gives them a baby, the product of their love" he folded the paper and looked for a place to keep it.

She tapped her cheek with her index finger, thinking.

Come together means...Oh, that means they connect the love.
But how? What is the form? And when?

"Is there any special muhurat... an auspicious time for love?" She pouted being annoyed.

He chuckled, "Yes there is...when a person becomes in all senses mature enough to understand its consequences. When a seed like you grows into a flower. When you are an adult... then there would be no restrictions for love".

Bondita took the paper from him,
"What is the form?"

" It's not something you'll understand at this age. But as you grow... the changes in your body will tell you. Like you had your period at a certain age. So you will feel that also at a certain age" He finished his explanation and looked at her.

She gave him an understanding look.
Bondita walked past him to keep that chart and note safe in the drawer.
As Anirudh watched her doing that he noticed red stains on her saree.

He checked the sheets she was sitting upon. "B...Bondita" She turned to face him when he called her.

"Yes"

"Your saree. I mean... I think just now you got your menses" he told her with a small stutter since he had a feeling she might be worried about her spots.

It's not something to hide, but something called "comfort" he wants her to feel.

"I don't have pads with me. And it's late at night. I don't have any rough cloth either" She looked at him with wide eyes.
--

Some children indeed misunderstand that sleeping beside someone of the opposite gender leads to pregnancy. Which is not a good thing.

Well, there is another part I would like to post. But it depends upon your responses. So do comment!