Chapter 22: Saralinda

They'd poked and prodded me for the first half hour. I'd had to pee in a bottle, give a blood sample, get weighed, get my blood pressure checked ... They took my pulse, peered in my eyes, checked my reflexes, listened to my breathing, and made me say 'Aaaah'. Finally, they let me dress, and go down to Dr. Anna's office. I knew where to sit.

I waited maybe five minutes before I was startled by two soft raps on the door, and Dr. Anna opening it and coming in.

"Ah – Saralinda. Good to see you again. Sorry about all of the medical stuff you had to go through, but we've got to do that each time to make sure you're adapting to the meds okay.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, after she sat down next to me.

I'm sure I blushed. I couldn't erase the half-smile that was stuck on my face.

"I'm good," I told her, perhaps a bit too quickly. I felt ready to burst.

She looked at me sharply. When I didn't say more, she asked, "So, what did you do yesterday?"

And I told her about the drive around West Maui and the snorkeling.

"And this morning?" she persisted.

I'm sure I blushed again. "Um..."

Dr. Anna raised her eyebrows at me.

"We slept in late and then ... Moira-and-Gary-made-love-to-me!"

Dr. Anna said nothing for a minute. She just, like, looked at me, and I suddenly felt embarrassed about telling her. But then she stood up, put down her notepad, walked around behind me, and rested her hands on my shoulders.

"So this was your first time having sex with a man?" she asked me quietly, even though she knew it from our talks before.

I nodded my head.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Kind of – I feel like I'm bursting inside."

Dr. Anna patted my shoulders and walked out from behind my chair. She walked over towards the door, then stopped and unbuttoned her long, white lab coat. She took it off, revealing a trim aqua pantsuit underneath. She hung the lab coat on a hook by the door, then came back and sat down next to me, closer than before.

"Itoshigo, I don't think your therapist needs to hear about your love life, but if you want to talk about sex with someone, your obaachan is here."

"Obaachan?" I asked, confused.

"Your 'grandmother', in Japanese. You can tell things to your obaachan that you can't tell anyone else. When I was first married, and had problems on my wedding night, I went to my grandmother – never to my mother! – and my grandmother gave me good advice. A few weeks later, when things were going much better in our bed, I went back to my obaachan to tell her the good news. I can be your obaachan and you are my Itoshigo - my 'beloved child'. You can tell me anything. So – was it as good as you hoped?"

I reached over and took her hands in mine – I took my, my obaachan's hands in mine.

"Oh, Dr. Anna – it was wonderful!"

"Tsk," she interrupted. "No 'Dr.' when I'm your obaachan. Just call me Anna."

We giggled.

"Okay, Anna it is. Anyway, I so wanted to try making love with Gary. He has these eyes, Anna – they're all-seeing and all-loving like Santa Claus's. When he looks at me ... But it wasn't just how he looks at me, Anna. Moira and Gary, they really love each other. It's amazing. I wanted to ... to be a part of that – to be a part of a love so deep.

"But all of yesterday, I was afraid that if I did make love with Gary that it would, like, hurt the love between him and Moira. She said it would be fine, and not to worry. But then I realized that Moira was afraid that if Gary and I made love, it would hurt the love between Moira and me! So last night, and again this morning, Moira and I had a really good talk about us and about Gary, and we got all settled away.

"And then this morning Moira decided to help Gary and me make love. And we didn't even ask Gary. Moira and I were lying in bed discussing this, with Gary right beside us, but we didn't actually, like, say anything, if you know what I mean. I think Gary was surprised, but I think it was a nice surprise.

"So the three of us were in bed this morning, and we were completely naked and I was on one side of Gary and Moira was on the other. And I, like, formally asked them to make love to me!"

"And it was good, Itoshigo?" she asked.

I nodded vigorously.

"Good, good. I'm glad your first time was so good. You're very lucky, my dear." And it looked like she was going to get up.

"Wait, Obaachan," I pleaded, reaching out to grab her hand. "Can't I tell you more?"

She laughed softly, and patted my hand, settling herself back into her chair. "Well, if it's going to just burst out of you in spite of yourself, you might as well tell your obaachan everything."

"Do you mean that? I mean, I can really tell you everything? Like, all of the details? And ask some questions? Please? I mean, I don't have anybody to talk to about this, except for Moira, and since she was involved..."

Dr. Anna smiled and nodded. "Go ahead, Dear." My obaachan patted my hand again, as if to get me started.

"Okay, so, first we just kissed and stuff, but then Moira and I had decided that she'd teach me how to give him a, um, um, ... a blow-job." I suddenly felt self-conscious about using such a word in front of my 'grandmother'.

Anna smiled at me forgivingly. "It's okay, Dear, I've given blow-jobs too. I was married, you know. Twice."

I blushed again, but then went on.

"Anyway, so Moira and I peeled back the sheet. She was on one side of Gary, and I was on the other, and she kind of showed me how to do it, and then she offered to let me try it. And we kind of switched back and forth, so she could, like, show me more.

"Having his thing – his cock – in my mouth ... That was weird, but I kind of liked it. I mean, it's kind of fat, at least according to Moira, so it was kind of hard to get it into my mouth at all. But Gary was, like, trusting me, Anna. I mean, I could have bit him! I didn't, but he trusted me not to. And I could make him feel good. Well, not exactly make him, but you know what I mean, don't you? Like, I could tell what he liked a lot, and what he liked a little, and what he didn't really like. And I could decide which to do. And, of course, since I wanted him to feel good, I did the things he liked a lot, and tried not to do the things he didn't like.

"I wasn't sure about having him, um, come in my mouth, so Moira said she'd, like, finish him. And then, when Moira said I'd gotten him to feel too good, I had to hurry up and get him out of my mouth before he went off! Moira just swallowed it all. I kissed her afterwards, and I could sort of taste it." I wrinkled my nose remembering the funny taste.