A tale of fiction about fictional characters.
*****
Kitty Foreman was singing softly to herself as she straightened up the basement recreation room where her teenage son Eric and his close-knit group of friends seemed to spend the majority of their free time. It was a beautiful Autumn day outside and all of the kids were still in school on a Friday afternoon. They were all seniors and had recently thrown a party for Jackie Burkhart, the last of the friends to turn eighteen. It seemed to Kitty like just yesterday she was changing Eric's diapers, and yet next Fall he would be in college. Eric wouldn't be coming home from school that afternoon, but sometimes the others showed up to hang out in the basement anyway. It was like that: Kitty had figuratively adopted them all and seemed to serve as their surrogate mother. They all came to her if they had problems , questions, or just needed a confidante. Kitty's husband Red was also the group's father-figure, but they really didn't approach him for guidance...he would probably tell them they were "dumb-asses." Kitty loved Red dearly, but he lacked patience and was not really a "people-person."
Red was now an Assistant Manager at the newly opened PriceMart, and had hired Eric to work part-time after school. This weekend he was making Eric attend a merchandising seminar at the PriceMart in nearby Waukesha, promising him that it would lead to a raise in pay. He was making Eric take the bus instead of the Vista Cruiser because he wanted Eric to concentrate on the seminar and not driving back and forth just to see his girlfriend Donna. Kitty knew Red loved his son, but sometimes he was unduly harsh on him. Donna Pinciotti had, it seemed, been Eric's girlfriend forever. The Pinciottis lived next door to the Foremans and the kids had known each other since grade-school. Kitty loved Donna like a daughter and secretly hoped her son would someday ask her to marry. She was a lovely girl: a tall redhead and way out of Eric's league so Kitty knew he really was lucky to have her for a girlfriend. As Kitty was cleaning up the basement, she was sipping (sometimes gulping) from a glass of her favorite wine. She was still dressed in her plain white nurse's uniform and cleaning and drinking wine helped her to unwind after a long shift at the hospital.
She was trying to relax herself for the appointment she had scheduled with Eric's friend Fez. Fez was the school's foreign exchange student from...wait, she had never heard him say what country he was from, but that really didn't matter because he was just an adorable, innocent boy that Kitty was terribly fond of. Last week he had approached her with a request, "Mrs. Red," he had started, "you are the only one I can come to with my problem. I know you secretly taught Hyde how to dance so he wouldn't be embarrassed at the Homecoming dance, and I have a sort of similar problem. You see I just got a girlfriend, Caroline, and I think she might want to "do it" but I have never..."
"Oh, heh,heh,heh," she had begun in that screechy, high-pitched, fingernails-on-a-chalkboard, ever-present cackle of hers, "are you asking for tips on lovemaking?"
Fez had looked down at his feet, his face turning red, and replied, "yes, Kelso said that since you are a nurse, you probably know all kinds of secrets about how to make a girl happy...and I really like Caroline and want to make her feel good."
"Oh you sweet boy," Kitty had beamed, blushing also, "you know I don't approve of sex before marriage, but I know you kids will do what your hormones tell you to, so you meet me down in the basement after school on Friday before everyone else gets there and we will discuss how to make a woman happy." She knew that Eric would be going to the bus station directly from school, and without him, the others would probably either go home or to the hamburger place. Michael Kelso was another of Eric's close friends, and he thought of himself as God's-gift-to -women. He was incredibly conceited, but was a child at heart and Kitty loved him like she did all the others. Stephen Hyde had been abandoned by his parents and had actually taken up residence in the Foreman basement. She had indeed given him secret dancing lessons and he had learned to be very light on his feet. Since she was a nurse, the human body itself was not embarrassing for her, but talking about it intimately to Eric's friends did make her nervous...hence the abundant amounts of wine.
She had brought some books and posters describing the female anatomy home from the hospital and intended to keep the lecture as clinical as possible. As she was fluffing the cushions on the sofa, an issue of Playboy fell out onto the floor. She picked it up, shook her head mumbling, "those randy scamps," and sat down on the sofa to leaf through it. Beginning from the back, Kitty read and laughed at several of the cartoons, then shook her head again when she got to the centerfold. It was a beautiful blonde wearing completely transparent panties and a pair of suspenders. Kitty muttered, "I didn't know they were showing pubic hair now...those suspenders are completely non-functional...I hope those kids don't think all women look like that without their clothes." She drained her glass and set it down on the coffee table, whisking the magazine under the cushion when she heard movement on the outside stairs leading down to the basement.
As Fez burst through the door, she stood and realized she was a little wobbly and unsteady on her feet. Glancing at the wine bottle, she was surprised to see it was empty. "Oh hello Mrs. Red," Fez began breathless from running all the way from school, "I am ready to learn all about how to make Caroline happy."
"Heh, heh, heh," Kitty giggled, "there is a lot more to that than sex, but I am prepared to teach you about the basics." As he sat on the sofa, Kitty strolled over to the washing machine where a large brightly painted ceramic cookie jar in the form of a rooster was sitting. She opened it saying, "the first thing you should know about is birth control," and she showed him the inside of the jar which contained dozens of assorted condoms. Kitty removed a condom from the jar and continued, "we don't want any little Fezes running around, at least until you get married, heh,heh,heh; so always wrap your penis in one of these before sex. They will always be here for you; I bring a few home from the hospital every shift." Fez giggled at the "penis" word and Kitty scowled and reminded him, "this is serious Fez, so play, I mean pay, attention." She was aware that her words were becoming slightly slurred as the wine took effect.
She began to show him some pictures in the books, trying to explain everything in clinical terms, and the puzzled look on his face just increased. He asked her questions about climaxes and ejaculations and it was becoming increasingly difficult for Kitty not to be aroused at all the talk of sex. Suddenly there was a commotion on the outside stairs and Kelso and Hyde flew through the door having a "flinch" contest and punching each others arms. Seeing the books and posters showing pictures of the female anatomy, and the reddened faces of Fez and Kitty; Hyde and Kelso stopped dead in their tracks trying to make sense of the scene. Recovering from her initial embarrassment, Kitty instructed them, "this is actually very fortunate...you two sit down and you can all benefit from this lesson."
Kelso socked Fez' arm and asked, "so what's up."
"Mrs. Red is teaching me about sex so I can please Caroline when we do it," Fez answered, "like when she taught Hyde how to dance."
Kelso, with at huge smile on his face, turned to Hyde and laughed, "Mrs. Foreman taught you how to dance...are you a fairy?"
Hyde slugged Kelso's arm hard and replied, "just pay attention, maybe you'll learn something."
Just as Kitty was resuming her discussion of the female anatomy, they heard Donna's distinctive voice from the kitchen upstairs, "Mrs. Foreman are you down there? Remember we were going to have that talk today?"
"Oh shit...I mean shoot," Kitty said and answered, "yes dear I'm down here." Then thinking quick she continued, "get a whole bunch of beer from the refrigerator and bring it down here."