Jacinta Takes a Walk
Copyright© 2025 by BarBar
Chapter 12: Only 399,999 To Go
The kitchen stayed quiet until we heard a succession of thumps as Tabitha made her way down the stairs. Despite the speed she clearly came down the stairs, she entered the kitchen walking sedately. She handed me the pad with a quiet, “Sorry!” and slid back into her chair.
I put the pad into the microwave and set the timer.
Tabitha looked at Jenny and asked in a quiet voice. “Does that mean you have your ... too?”
I smiled gently. “Yeah, kid. Jenny got her period. As if she wasn’t already feeling like shit.”
The microwave went ding and I handed the pad to Jenny who immediately tucked it down inside the doona.
“The heat pad helps with the cramps she gets because of her period,” Freddy explained to Tabitha.
Tabitha looked at Freddy with her mouth open, not sure how to respond.
“That reminds me,” said Freddy, looking at me. “You were going to explain about periods this morning.”
I stopped what I was doing. “Oh, yeah! So I was.”
Jenny coughed and looked at me.
“Is there a reason we’re explaining periods to my little brother?” she asked in that quiet, I’m still in pain, type of voice.
“I woke up last night and you were bleeding,” said Freddy. “There was blood all over your legs. I was really freaked out ‘cos I thought you were hurt. Jacinta told me not to worry because it was your period. She said it was normal and that you were okay.”
“Wow!” said Tabitha.
“Oh!” said Jenny.
Freddy continued. “I helped Jacinta clean you up and then put a pad thing in your underwear to soak up the blood that was coming out of you.”
“You helped?” asked Jenny.
Freddy nodded. “I didn’t know about periods. I still don’t. Jacinta promised to explain it in the morning. All I know is that blood was coming out of your ... um ... private place and now you have stomach cramps.”
“Wow!” said Tabitha.
Freddy turned to Tabitha and looked earnest. “Jacinta told me it happens to all girls every month but not when they’re little. She said her periods started when she was twelve, so I asked if your periods had started, and she didn’t know. Have your periods started?”
Tabitha blushed. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish. Her eyes flashed to Jenny and then to me, as if she was hoping we would rescue her, but we both simply looked back at her.
Seeing no alternative but to answer, she whispered, “No.”
Jenny sighed. “Mum and I think it will happen soon. Probably sometime this year.”
Freddy’s eyes went wide and he looked at Tabitha. “Is that exciting? Is that scary? Knowing that your periods will happen soon?”
Tabitha was still blushing. Her eyes darted around the room as if she was looking for a way to escape. Then she looked back at Freddy. He was looking at her with such care, such concern, such devotion.
Finally, she whispered, “It’s a bit scary. But it’s also like a thing. It’s a part of growing up. A couple of my friends have started, and I don’t want to be left behind.”
Freddy’s eyes lit up with understanding. “So, it’s like a milestone? Like a birthday? Jacinta said that starting to grow ... um ... boobies is also like an important milestone for a girl. She asked me if you’d started growing boobies.” He looked ashamed. “I didn’t know.”
Tabitha looked at him. “Oh!” She looked down at her chest where the open jacket kind of hid the answer to that question. Then she looked back at Freddy. “Oh!”
Jenny looked sideways at me and whispered, “I bet you didn’t say boobies.”
I winked at her in response but didn’t say anything.
“I felt really bad,” said Freddy. “Here was this really important milestone thing about my own sister and I hadn’t even noticed. I wanted to be happy for you, but I didn’t know.”
Tabitha was still blushing. She used both hands to pull her jacket closed. Then she looked around at us. “Can we change the topic? I don’t want Freddy staring at me.”
Freddy gave a little half-shrug. “It’s okay. I already saw Jenny’s boobies and I saw Jacinta’s boobies. I don’t need to see yours too. I just wanted to know, that’s all.”
Jenny looked confused. “I get how you saw me, but how did you get to see Jacinta?”
Freddy smile dropped. “I was really sore last night, I could hardly move my arm, but I had mud everywhere. It was pretty gross. Jacinta washed my hair for me. I stood in the shower, and she washed the mud out of my hair. I liked having my hair washed.”
“Ah!” said Jenny. “That was nice of her.”
Freddy giggled as he remembered. “I thought it was funny how her boobies wobbled when she moved her arms. Jacinta said that’s because there’s no bone or anything inside them to hold them still. She said they’re like two bags of jelly stuck to her chest.”
Tabitha looked like she’d been hit in the face with a wet sponge.
Jenny’s face didn’t change at all. She did a kind of slow blink. “I guess they are a bit like that,” she finally admitted.
“I didn’t realise that my every single word would get repeated,” I grumbled.
“Welcome to my life,” replied Jenny. “I need more coffee.”
“That I can do,” I said.
The kettle already had hot water, so it didn’t take long to boil. I checked with Jenny and added coffee powder, sugar and milk as she wanted.
She let me do all that and then said, “You do know there’s a coffee machine right there on the bench, don’t you?”
I shrugged. “Yeah. But I don’t know how to work the machine.”
“Ah!” she said, “Fair enough.”
She wrapped her hands around the coffee mug, waiting for it to cool enough so she could drink it.
Freddy had been waiting patiently for me to finish doing that. “Are you going to explain about periods now?”
“Would you prefer to have Mum explain it to you?” asked Jenny.
Freddy looked frustrated. “Mum isn’t here. I trust Jacinta. She can explain it.”
I wasn’t so sure about that. I’ve had it explained to me, but it’s different when you have to tell someone else.
I sighed. “Maybe we should move into the front room, where we can sit more comfortably.”
That gave me another two minutes to think about what to say. As I walked out of the kitchen, Frodo slid in and padded along beside me.
We all moved into the front room. Jenny used the doona to build a nest for herself in one of the armchairs and then disappeared into it, clutching her coffee mug. I sat in a second armchair. Frodo flopped down across my feet and started panting, looking around the room at the others.
Freddy bounced onto the settee. As he did so, the bottom hem of his shirt flew up. Tabitha squawked and then gave a high-pitched giggle. “Freddy, I can see your ... thing.”
Freddy gasped and pushed the shirt down. Tabitha stood in front of him with her hands on her hips.
“Freddy, why aren’t you wearing underwear? That’s so ... You have to ... It’s wrong.”
Freddy started looking miserable.
“Tabitha, sit down and leave Freddy alone.” I instructed, my voice sharp.
Tabitha spun around to face me, looking as if she wanted to argue. But then she saw the way I was looking at her and changed her mind. She sat down at the other end of the settee from where Freddy was sitting and scowled.
“Tabitha, if you were listening earlier, you’d have heard that all of Freddy’s clothes got covered in mud. They’re currently in the washing machine getting clean. He has no other clothes with him. Uncle Alex’s underwear would fall straight off him. That shirt was the best we could do.”
I turned to look at Freddy. “Come here, buddy.”
Frodo lazily stood up and wandered out of the way. Freddy came over and took up a familiar position, standing between my knees.
“Tabitha forgot about your clothes needing to be washed. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have spoken to you like that, understand?”
“But she laughed at me. She saw my ... thing ... and she laughed.”
I sighed. Apparently, boys being fragile about girls laughing at their dicks is a universal thing. Who knew?
“Freddy. When some girls get embarrassed, or surprised, they give this high little giggle. That’s what Tabitha did. She saw something she wasn’t expecting. She was surprised. She was embarrassed. So she did a little giggle.” I imitated the high-pitched little giggle. “She wasn’t laughing at you. She didn’t mean to make you feel bad. Do you believe me?”
Freddy hesitated. I leaned around Freddy and glared at Tabitha. She’d been listening to what I was saying. I glared at her and crooked my finger to get her to come over. I mouthed the words, “say sorry” to her.
Tabitha came up behind Freddy and put her arms around him. “She’s right,” she said in a soft voice. “I was surprised so I laughed. I wasn’t laughing at you.”
Freddy relaxed. I smiled at Tabitha, pleased with how she’d done what I wanted.
She steered Freddy back towards the settee. “Now, come and sit down and stop being a wuss.”
I rolled my eyes. I guess it was too much to expect her to be nice for more than five seconds in a row.
When they were sitting back on the settee, I took a breath, but Jenny spoke first.
“Tabby, has Mum explained to you about periods?”
Tabitha nodded. “Yeah, I know all about them.” She sounded confident.
“In that case,” said Jenny, “maybe it would be good for both of you if you explained them to Freddy.”
Tabitha looked stunned. She stuttered and gulped.
Finally, she said, “Well, I know what happens, but maybe there are some bits about why they happen that I’m not so sure about.”
Jenny sighed. “In that case it would be good for you to hear about it again. It should be Mum, but she’s not here. Or it should be me, but I’m not up to it this morning. So it sounds like we’re relying on Jacinta to do the talking.”
She turned to me. “Off you go then, you’re up. I’ll sit here and quietly die. I’ll try to rescue you if you get stuck.”
So now I was explaining things to a girl, who was about to start her first hand experience. That made it different. It meant I had to give more details than I had intended. I decided to start with the real basics.
“Freddy, what do you know about how babies are made?”
“Um ... the mum and the dad do the sex thing, and that plants the baby in the Mum’s tummy, and it grows there until it gets born.”
“That’s a good place to start, but I’ll fix one thing.”
I stood up and lifted my shirt to expose my stomach. “In here are my stomach and my intestines, what people call their tummy,” I said waving my hand up and down my torso. “My stomach and intestines are for the food that I eat.”
Tabitha had gasped when I lifted up my shirt. “Jacinta, he can see your underwear. You shouldn’t do that.”
I looked at her and lifted my eyebrows. “Freddy’s seen my twat. I hardly think seeing my undies is going to shock him.”
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