The children were at school and Donna and Alex Stone were having lunch together in their neat kitchen when Donna broached the subject.

"Jeff's growing up to be quite a man, isn't he?"

"A man?" Alex almost spilled his coffee; he put it back down, careful not to stain his lab coat, before he went on. "He's not a man yet, is he? He's only -- what, 11? 12?"

Donna hid a smile behind her own coffee cup. "He turned 12 last month, dear, remember? And, well, I know 12 isn't really a man, but it won't be long now... So don't you think it's time he learned things?"

Alex stared at his wife. "Things? He can't drive until he's 16. What's he got to learn now?"

"The facts of life, dear. The birds and the bees? You know."

The doctor's face turned a delicate shade of pink. "Yes, I know them. But -- I mean -- well, isn't that what we send him to school for?"

"Now, Alex, you know they don't teach those things in school. What's the matter? You've done this before, haven't you? When your patients ask you questions, what do you tell them?"

"To ask their parents," he said quickly, then stopped. "Er, but, that is -- you did such a good job of telling Mary, why don't you take care of Jeff, too?"

"Mary is a girl, dear -- or haven't you noticed?"

"Of course I've noticed. I'm a doctor. I mean -- but --"

Donna cut off further debate. "I found a stain in his shorts this morning that I'm sure came from a wet dream. We can't put this off any longer. I've told Jeff that you have something to discuss with him and you'd do it after dinner. That's enough time -- if you need to brush up, I mean." With a chuckle, she cleared the table and herded her husband back to his office.

Jeff was waiting in his bedroom when his dad came up after dinner. Their discussion was short and, to Jeff, very confusing.

"Your mother said it was time you learned about... things," Jeff's father began. "Birds and bees. That kind of... thing. Here." With that, he thrust into Jeff's hands a heavy, dusty old book and left the room quickly.

The title, what Jeff could read where the gilding hadn't worn away, was "Medi al Ency lop d a & Syll bus." Puzzled, Jeff opened the thick book up to a page marked by a sheet torn from his father's prescription pad and started reading -- or trying to read. The words were long and unfamiliar, and the pictures weren't much help: they looked like people with spaghetti in their laps -- no, wait, that spaghetti was INSIDE their laps. Yuuck, Jeff thought.

The next day, Jeff dropped in at his father's office after school. He told his dad he'd tried to read the book but the words were too big and the pictures didn't make any sense.

"Hmmm. Well," his father said heavily, "do you understand any of it?"

"Yeah, I figure it's about making babies and what mommies and daddies do, but that's just 'cause I recognized some stuff I've heard kids talking about at school. But I guess I don't really understand how it all works -- what the mommies and daddies do, I mean."

"Yes." Dr. Stone glanced down at his appointment calendar, which was blank. "I've... I've got to go over my records right now," he said, "but I'll think about this and talk to you later."

"Tonight? After dinner again? Maybe if I could just ask you..."

"Well, we'll see. Maybe not tonight."

It was three days later when Dr. Stone finally trudged up to Jeff's room after dinner, this time carrying a thin brown paper bag. Jeff was at his desk building a model airplane and barely had time to turn around before his father tossed the bag onto the bed and turned to leave. "There, those ought to help," Dr. Stone said over his shoulder. "You study those awhile. And if you have any questions..." He left the sentence hanging as he closed the door after himself.

Curious, Jeff picked up the bag and shook out the contents: three magazines about the size of comic books, with pictures of women on the covers. He started flipping through one: more women, but they were naked. And men. And they were touching each other and...

Each night after school for the next week or so, Jeff hurried up to his room after dinner and pored over the books. It didn't take him that long to figure out what was going on; he just liked to look. He grew accustomed to the things that happened when he looked, and figured out that the stuff that came out of his penis was the same stuff he'd found in his shorts once in a while recently, when he woke up in the morning. Soon he found that if he rubbed his penis while he looked, he could make the stuff come out even more -- plus that felt pretty good, too.

In time the books were just about all he could think about. Then he started thinking about other women, women he saw every day, and what they'd look like naked. He even thought about his mom, which he didn't think was very nice but he couldn't help it.

He got even bolder and tried to think of ways to see real women naked. There didn't seem to be too many, but he was able to do stuff like drop a pencil on the floor at school and try to peek up the teacher's dress, or walk over to one of the girls in the lunchroom and try to look down her blouse (though there didn't seem to be much to see, there).

One night he even snuck up to his older sister Mary's door, while their parents were still downstairs. He crept up to the keyhole and peeked in. He got to see her take off her blouse, but she had a bra on underneath and before she took that off or anything else she moved to the other side of the room and he couldn't see anything.

Then came one Saturday night. The folks were going out to dinner and a movie and maybe dancing after, they said. But at the last minute, the sitter they'd hired to watch Jeff had to cancel. Mary had plans to go out that night, too, but she had to cancel and stay home instead. She was not happy about it, but Mrs. Stone insisted.

After his parents left, Jeff tried to apologize to Mary.

"Oh, it's not your fault," she said, forcing a smile. "I know that. Don't worry, Jeff, I don't blame you. It's just... well, it's just that I had plans for tonight, that's all, and I was looking forward to them. Well, there's no use crying over spilled milk. Look, why don't you go up and do some homework, like Mom said, and then we can watch TV and have some popcorn?"

"Well, I finished my homework last night," Jeff started, "but..."

"I haven't, and I need to work down here, so..." Her voice softened. "So just give me a little while, OK? I'll call you when I'm done."

Jeff went upstairs, but not to study. He pulled out the books his dad had given him and once again stared at the pictures. After a little while, he tossed the books aside and lay back on the bed, thinking about stuff.

He was staring up at the ceiling when Mary tapped on the door and walked in. Lost in thoughts, he'd forgotten about the books on the bed until Mary spotted them and reached down. She got one before he could stop her.

Her eyes grew wide as she looked through it. "Where did you get this? What if Mom and Dad find out?" Even as she said that, though, she continued to flip through the book, and Jeff could see her eyes flicking from picture to picture.

"Well, Dad GAVE it to me," he said. "I'm supposed to learn stuff from it."

Mary was dubious. "Learn stuff? Just what are you supposed to be learning?"

"You know -- what's in there. Birds and bees, Dad said. You know."

"Birds and -- Didn't Mom talk to you about that?"

"No. I think she's the one who told Dad to talk to me, though. But he didn't seem to want to talk about. First he gave me this big old book, but I couldn't figure out the words. So he gave me these." With a wave of his hand, Jeff indicated the other books on the bed.

Mary flopped down to look at them.

As she stretched out on the bed and flipped through the books, Jeff looked over his sister. In her mid-teens, she had already filled out; he knew that from his peek through the keyhole. She had smooth, white skin, with just a hint of tan. Her legs were long and slender. She had on a plain white blouse and a plaid skirt. Underneath, Jeff wondered... was this his chance to find out?

While Mary was still engrossed in the pictures, Jeff cautiously reached out a hand and began to stroke her back. He barely touched her, but he could feel the thick strap of her bra as he slid his hand up and down.

Mary didn't seem to notice. Jeff started massaging her with both hands now. He could feel his penis growing stiff and long as he did. He applied a bit more pressure. Mary stirred -- and sighed quietly. Jeff kept rubbing.

Emboldened, he even slipped a hand down to her butt. She wiggled a bit; he pulled it back.

But he kept rubbing her back, and as he did Mary's blouse rode up and slipped out of her skirt. He slipped his hand down. A sizzle went through him when he touched her warm, smooth skin. His sister looked back at him then. There was a glazed sort of look in her eyes, but she said nothing as she turned back to the books.

Jeff put both hands under her blouse now, pushing it up as he massaged her back. His penis was pressing so hard against his slacks that he thought they would burst open. His hands moved to Mary's sides and he pushed them up further. His fingertips brushed against the stiff, scratchy sides of her bra cups. Mary raised herself up slightly on her elbows! Jeff eagerly reached for more, moving around to kneel astride her and putting both hands firmly on the cups of his older sister's bra.