I don't know what happened. I mean, I don't do such things, and I never had any idea I ever would, but I did.
It began on Saturday morning, the 21st of June., Solstice Day. Gina asked me last Monday about going with her to the festival some of her friends were putting together for this day, but I said I just couldn't. I'd heard about what people did at those festivals, and that kind of behavior wasn't for me.
"Oh, Sybil, loosen up a little," Gina laughed. "With a name like Sybil, you have to do those kind of nature festivals. You'd fit right in."
When I went to bed Friday night everything seemed normal. I did go to sleep naked. I do that once in awhile, and I admit I like it but it seems a little immoral so I don't do it often. I limit myself to not more than once a week, and when I do it it's always on Friday night. I can't do it on Saturday night, because then I'd wake up naked on Sunday morning and that just wouldn't be right. Not that anybody would know, of course, but somebody might ask and then I'd be embarrassed and then they'd know.
Anyway, when I woke up Saturday morning, the sun was already lighting the room. I checked my radio alarm. It read 5:22. Then I did something that brought me completely awake. It was the first thing I did, and I did it without thinking. I said, quietly, but aloud and as plain as day, "Fuck."
I hate that word. I never use it. I always cringe on the inside when I hear it. I think it's a very crude word and it usually makes me feel dirty. There are a lot of words like that, I think, and I hate every one of them. I have no idea why it just popped out like that.
"Fuck." I listened to it roll around in my ears, and then, not thinking, I repeated it. "Fuck."
It dawned on me that it didn't disgust me as it usually did. In fact, I kind of liked the sound of it. I said it again, repeating it at slow intervals. I felt weird doing it, but it wasn't as bad as I'd experienced it before then. It was kind of like someone had given me permission to hear it from my own voice. I realized then that I'd never actually said the word. I wondered if there was a difference whether a person says a word or whether they hear it.
"Fuck."
"Fuck."
"Fuck."
"Fuck."
"Fuck."
It got to be kind of fun. I started to laugh. I said the word louder and repeated it a little faster.
"Fuck." Fuck." "Fuck."
It was great. I got out of bed and padded into the bathroom. I looked at myself in the mirror and said it where I could see me speaking it.
"Fuck." "Fuck." "Fuck."
My face didn't break or go bad. Actually, I am a pretty girl. Everybody has always said so, even before I grew up. Three years ago when I moved into this ground-floor apartment and began to live on my own my mother warned me to be careful of men in my life, and never, ever let a man come into the apartment alone or else I would be tempted to succumb to the kind of life her sister Delilah did, with men everywhere all times of the day and night. Mom didn't approve of Delilah's knowing so many different men, but it always looked to me like Delilah had a lot more fun than Mom did. I didn't know what to make of it. I knew Mom was right, though, and I didn't want to be an immoral woman like Aunt Delilah. Mom warned me that ground floor apartments were dangerous, so I had to keep my shades down and the curtains pulled all the time. I did what my mother said, except some days after I was up and dressed I would open the shades and curtains and let the light in. I love light. I never told mother that I did that. She would have been mortified.
I stood there in front of the mirror speaking to my reflection. I looked at myself from head to toe and I kept repeating the words, sometimes softly, sometimes quite loud.
"Sybil," I said to myself, "you are standing here saying the word 'fuck' over and over like some immoral person. Why doesn't it sound immoral? There you are, all five-feet-five inches of you, with your standard All-American 34C boobs and your 26-inch waist and your 34-inch hips and your dark brown eyes and long honey-blonde hair down to your waist and your lightly covered slit and you want to put your hand down there and you never do that kind of thing, but you're going to do it right now."
I watched as I slid my right hand, flat on my belly, slowly down to my crotch and inserted a finger in my soft slit. I know what's there, of course. I had sex education in high school and I did read another book about it, too. Gina tells me she does it a lot, masturbate, and it feels very good. She says she slides her finger very softly over her clitoris and sometimes she can bring herself off that way. That's the way she says it, "bring myself off." She means she feels especially good.
I don't masturbate. A few times my fingers have rubbed there, but only one or two rubs and I stop. It's sinful to masturbate. Mom always said I'd go crazy if I masturbated myself so I don't do it. I don't want to be crazy. This morning I stood in front of the mirror and I watched as my hand seemed to go down there of its own accord, and I felt it rub and very soon it found my clitoris. It felt very good. It felt as if this was a most wonderful thing to do. I kept rubbing very lightly and pretty soon I felt myself begin to quiver and my knees went weak, and I leaned on the edge of the sink counter with my other hand and then I felt the most wonderful feeling go through me and I wondered if perhaps I was getting sick and I realized that when I get sick it never feels this good. I realized I was pressing against my clit more firmly while the shock went through me like that. When it stopped I let my fingers slide down a little more and I felt wetness. At first I thought I must have peed, but I didn't remember feeling myself doing that, and I do know what that feels like. I remembered then what I learned in sex education, that a woman gets wet between her legs when her body is ready to have sex with a man.
I kept on looking in the mirror and I brought my hands to cover my breasts.
"Tits." Oh-oh! I never use that word either. I think it's very rude and very coarse. I have breasts, not tits.