To right a life

XXXIX

Suddenly, Eleven turns off the TV.

   "Henry," she murmurs thoughtfully. "I want... to ask you something."

   She was taking her sweet time: after all, Joyce had already left a couple of hours ago. By her side, Henry closes his book and rests it on his lap, ready to give her his undivided attention. "Yes, Eleven?"

   "It's...about what Mrs... Joyce... said to me today."

   "I understand." He tries for his smile to be comforting. "What do you want to know?"

   Eleven settles in to sit cross-legged on the couch. She doesn't look straight at him; Henry cannot really blame her.

   "She said she wasn't going to mention anything... deep about what... bleeding... means to women. She just... She explained to me how to use the pads and how to... clean myself up."

   "Aha." This information does not surprise him: it is what he and the shopkeeper had agreed upon from the beginning.

   "And... at school they taught us it's... normal. That girls start with... this at some point."

   "It is."

   "But why? What for? That's what I don't get..."

   Henry purses his lips. After a pause, he asks: "Do you remember, years ago, when I explained to you that our bodies are different?" He waits for her to nod before continuing. "Okay, that is related to this... A girl's body, as it matures, begins to produce, each month, a very special cell called an 'egg.' If the proper conditions are met, the egg can become an embryo, which will later be a fetus, and—"

   "Embryo? Fetus?"

   "A baby," Henry explains, as impersonally as he can manage. "Well, those are stages before the baby is fully formed and ready to be born. Now, if the conditions are not met, the woman's body discards everything it prepared to sustain the baby... And it does it through a monthly bleeding."

   "But... what happens if the conditions are met?" Her face turns pale. "What if... this happens to me and...?"

   Henry bites his lower lip to keep from laughing at her innocence. "Oh, no, Eleven; that is not an accidental process. Your body cannot create a baby on its own."

   "It can't?" She cocks her head. "Then how...?"

   After giving it some thought, Henry stands up. "Come with me; I need to show you something."

#

Once in the study, Eleven takes a seat at the desk while Henry examines his library.

   "Hmm. Let's see... Ah, here it is." This time, he doesn't opt for a textbook, but for a human anatomy atlas. He places the tome in front of them both and, with a wave of his hand, pulls up another chair to take a seat next to the girl. "This may be a bit awkward, but be patient, alright?" he asks her softly.

   Eleven nods, and Henry can see, from the way she looks at him without a shadow of a doubt, her absolute trust in him. Without further ado, he searches the index for the indicated page... and then opens the book at this position. "Look: this is what the bodies of an adult man and woman look like."

   He patiently lets Eleven absorb the information. When she raises her head and he gets a glimpse of her confused expression, he decides to continue: "Just as a woman's body produces a specific cell, as I already mentioned—"

   "The... egg, you said," she completes.

   "Exactly," he smiles at her obvious interest. "Thus, the man's body produces a specific cell: the 'spermatozoid.' When the egg and the spermatozoid unite, they create a new being: one that will later be a baby and will be born within nine months."