Posted As Missing

Chapter Twenty-Nine

David applied more tape diagonally around Rachel's foot, winding from the arch, over the top, around the heel and back to the arch to further stabilise the ankle and add pressure. As he was doing this, Maria took the towels to the stream to re-wet.

"I can't keep my eyes off your equipment, David. You're an impressively built lad. Maria doesn't know how well endowed you are. She has no comparison, but I do. I explored a fair bit before I met Edom, and I knew a lot of men — I know."

"I didn't realise until I arrived at Army camp last year and saw the other fellows in the gang showers. Didn't realise until they were pointing and staring. Until I saw they were all smaller, most of them much smaller. I had always considered this as normal. This is still normal for —"

"What's still normal for what?" Maria interrupted as she came back in with the cold towels. "Let me put these on again, Mama, then you can tell me what's normal."

She reapplied the cold compresses and looked up. "David? Mama? Who's going to tell me what's normal?"

"You go ahead, Mama," he said. "You're more experienced with this than I am."

"But you're closer to the subject than I am," Rachel said, giggling.

"Closer, maybe, but until last August in Quebec, I was completely unaware of anything of it. It had never entered my mind."

"I'm no further ahead here," Maria said. "What's this normal thing you were talking about?"

"Abnormal, Sweetheart," Rachel replied. "Abnormal is more the theme of the discussion we were having."

"Yes, but to me, entirely normal," he countered.

"But you had no basis for comparison. No norm to relate to."

"That's the thing, though. My range of comparison had been my father, my brother and me. I seemed normal."

"You come from a very big family."

"No, only one brother and one sister."

"I'm completely confused here," Maria said. "What's this about?"

Rachel reached out her hand and gave his dangle a gentle shake. "This, Maria, we're talking about this."

"That's such a delightful topic, one I'm very interested in," Maria said, "but I haven't been able to follow. What have I missed?"

"Mama, you tell her, you know more about it than I."

Maria shook her head. "Weren't we just here a minute ago?"

"Size, Maria, size. These are normally smaller. Much smaller. I didn't realise they came this big until I spied on you that first day. David's is bigger dangling than most men are when they're hard."

"How big are they normally, then?"

"This size," he said. "This is normal for me. This is what I grew up with, what grew up with me.."

"So that's where I came in, then," Maria laughed. "He thinks it's normal, you think it's not."

"I know it's not, and he now also knows. Tell her about your discoveries in the showers. I'd like to hear the rest of it too."

He looked at them and shrugged "My first day in Valcartier when I arrived to sign-up for the Army last August, after being assigned a bunk in the barrack tents, I went to find a bath. It was hot and humid, and after the four-day train trip, I was sticky and stinky.

"There were no baths, only large rooms with shower nozzles. The room was crowded when I arrived so I undressed, joined in and stood under a shower stream enjoying the cooling water for a while before starting to soap. I looked up and saw nearly everyone staring at me, so to find out what the problem was, I asked the fellow next to me to explain.