Esme's POV
Standing out in our front yard under the bright moonlight, in the strong arms of my loving husband I can't imagine anywhere else I would rather be. Feeling very joyful, I begin to hum a happy little tune as he and I admire the flowers we just planted up and down the front walkway.
Four different kinds of flowers are now planted in neat roles, from the edge of the dirt road, leading up to our front porch. They look very beautiful in the pattern we arranged them.
The colors of purple, pink, red, and white dance together in perfect harmony as the wind playfully runs through their delicate petals. I breathe in the scent of my new flowers that I bought after the kids and I left the market earlier today. The beautiful scent of lavender, dahlias, amaryllis, tulips and daisies fill the night air.
With Carlisle's arms around me I lean my back against his chest with my head on his shoulder. My day may have started out strange but eventually it got back on track and turned out amazing. The tune that I'm humming changes as my mind drifts off, from thinking about my flowers to my youngest son and our little evening shopping trip with Alice. Now I understand why she was so hyper on our ride to the market, she was preparing to play matchmaker. She did very well.
Carlisle moves his right arm from around my chest to my face. He gently brushes his fingers against my cheek. "You seem to be very happy, dear. Pleased with your flowers?" He wonders.
"Yes." I twist around in his arms. Now we are face to face. "Thank you for helping me arrange them."
"Always happy to help." He smiles.
I give him a peck on the lips that he gracelessly returns.
Without a word exchanged between us our embrace ends, hand in hand we stroll over to our wrap around porch. With four of our children gone for the night and only one inside - upstairs in his room - our house is really quiet. Only the hushed sound of him talking on the phone is heard as crickets chirp in the distance. Together Carlisle and I sit on our porch swing, enjoying the night air while wanting to give Edward a little privacy while he talks to his girlfriend. I am overjoyed by that little fact.
"Oh, Carlisle," I say, resting my head on his shoulder. "You should have seen Edward at the store today. It was just the cutest sight to see him holding the little girl's hand. They look adorable together."
He chuckles. "I know. You told me five times already." He reminds me.
That's true, I've told him about our little field trip to the grocery store and the events that played out there, more than once. It's just too exciting to keep to myself. Of course, I waited to tell him until after our older kids left the house so Emmett and Jasper wouldn't unintentionally tease Edward as they sometimes do. I also waited for Edward to be occupied on the phone before I uttered a word. I didn't want to embarrass him.
"I can't help it. It's so hard to contain my joy. I'm so happy for him." I say with a smile.
"That's understandable." He agrees, patting my knee. "This is a big milestone for our boy."
I nod my head. "It's very interesting to watch him blossom into the stage where girls no longer have cooties."
"Hmm. Interesting term." Carlisle muses. "Though I doubt Edward actually thought that."
"Maybe." I allow it. "But his behavior toward girls often reminded me of how some of the boys in the fourth grade would act around with girls when I taught Elementary school in the 60's." I say, thinking back to my teaching career. "Now he's reminding me a little bit of how the boys were around the opposite sex when I taught middle school in the 80's. A little awkward and self-conscious."
"Yeah. That sounds about right." Carlisle says thoughtfully. "Regarding Edward's hormones finally becoming active, hormonally and emotionally he is on the level of a younger adolescent for the time being. This is all new to him."
"Very true." I agree.
"Since this is all new to him. I predict there will be a few more father-son talks similar to the few I had with him today." He says in an unsure tone.
"This is also new to you as well." I point out, rubbing his hand. "You haven't had the practice of explaining puberty to Emmett or Jasper as a human father would have."
"Quite right." He says. "I wasn't exactly sure what to tell him today. He had quite a few questions that I did not foresee. Which led me to an assortment of internet research on how to talk to children about puberty."
He becomes quiet and I sense his distress. Always so confident, he usually knows exactly what to say but that is not the case right now. Which seems to have him rattled, just a bit.
Wanting to offer him comfort I wrap my arms around him, leaning my head on his shoulder. Not slowing down our steady pace on the porch swing, he wraps his arms around me.
"You're doing fine, honey." I say honestly.
"Thanks, love." He kisses the top of my head. "He sure had a lot of very interesting questions while others didn't make much sense. It was just him being young and overwhelmed by everything." He nervously chuckles a little. "I'm sure he'll have more questions about the human body and sex. I'm really not looking forward to that conversation but I have a feeling it will come up soon."
"Probably." I agree. "We're in this together, if you need help explaining something I'll try to help you."
"Thank you." He says, rubbing my arm. "Though I feel it's more of a father-son talk. However, if he should have any questions about the female body you are welcome to answer those."
"Sounds good." I reply. Silently I begin wondering to myself about what questions a teenage boy might ask. I can't think of any.
Carlisle and I become silent as we lightly swing back and forth in our porch swing, perfectly content with each other's company. With his arm around me and my head on his shoulder, it's easy to get lost in the peaceful hush that surrounds us. With having five children who can all be a little rambunctious at times, we hardly know what quietness sounds like.
The wind wraps around us along with the wonderful aroma of followers. My mind takes me back to the way my little boy looked so proud to be holding hands with Bella and to introduce her to me when I was in the checkout lane with Alice. Thinking about that I can't keep the grin from my face.
For so many years I watched my son and worried about him. I often wondered if he was just too young when Carlisle turned him, that maybe Edward still hadn't developed the ability to form relationships outside of our family and never would. For decades I had feared that he was more lonesome than my other children because of that. I was especially worried over him having no desire of forming a lasting bond with a mate. That had always seemed like it was out of the realm of possibilities for him, until day.
After seeing Edward with Bella in the store, seeing the loving and innocent way they held each other's hand and gazed at one another. I'm bursting with joy.
Oh how my boy, who once wanted absolutely nothing to do with girls, was shining bright, looking every bit like a teenager that's head over heels in love, while Bella appeared to be the same way. It was just too cute. Now, I can't seem to contain my joy. I'm so happy for him I'm bursting with delight.
I absolutely cannot wait to see another interaction between the young pair. I wonder when he'll bring her over here. I hope it won't take him too long to decide on that. I really can't wait to get to know her, I just met her today and I already feel like she's part of the family.
Simultaneously an owl hoots in the distance, coming from the direction of the river as the front door opens. Carlisle and I both turn to see a smiling Edward standing next to the porch swing. He's as happy as a clam with his phone in his hand.
"Hi, my sweet boy," I say looking at my son. "Did you have a nice talk with Bella?"
"Yes." Edward replies with his crooked grin. "She had to eat dinner but after that, she promised to call me back." There's no denying that joy is radiating for him as he explains this, putting his phone in his pocket. "And tomorrow I have plans to go to the Library with her after school."
"Ah! So that's what has you all smile worthy." Carlisle speaks cheerfully.
Edward shrugs his shoulders. "There's that. And I also have a date with Bella on Friday night."
"Aww! Your first date." I get up and happily wrap him in a hug.
I am so joyful about this news, I cannot contain my delight. I kiss my boy's cheek as he stands in my embrace, taking it all in. Carlisle chuckles as I express how happy I am for Edward, both in my mind and out loud.
"Stop, Mom, you're making me blush." Edward teases as I his cheek once more.
"Alright, love." Carlisle is now standing behind me with his hand on my shoulder. "I think he's had enough."
Reluctantly, I release Edward who lets out a sigh of relief as his father drapes his arm around me. Maybe I overdid it with my gesture of affection but I couldn't help it. I'm feeling ecstatic that Edward has found love and I just can't hide how I feel.
"That's quite obvious." Edward smirks, reading my thoughts.
"I'm just tickled to death about this." I admit as he nods his head.
"Well, where are you planning to take her out on Friday?" Carlisle wonders, changing the subject.
"To a mini golf course in Seattle. We plan to meet each other there." Edward explains, shoving his hands in his pockets, looking a little uneasy. "Since I'm playing the role of a fifteen year old and you guys refuse to allow me to drive, I will be needing a ride since it wouldn't be very human to run the whole way there. Though I am perfectly capable of doing that." He looks at Carlisle while he speaks.
"I'm scheduled to work Friday night, Son. Otherwise I would be happy to drive you there." Carlisle's tone is apologetic.
Without a word Edward nods his head. Disappointment clouds his young face for a fraction of a second as his eyes fall on me.
"Of course I'll take you." I answer his unspoken question.
"Thank you." Edward smiles. Back to being blissful, he turns around heading for the door.
"So Bella likes golf?" I ask before he can open the front door and go inside.
"I don't know. I sure hope she does." Edward answers, turning around to look at his father and I.
His answer confuses me. I wonder what he could mean by that. Didn't he ask her if she enjoyed mini golf when they made their date?
"What exactly do you mean, Son?" Carlisle is also confused by our son's spoken words. "Didn't you ask her if that was something she wanted to do?"
"Not really." Edward admits, looking a bit ashamed. "There was a sheet of paper someone printed out and left on my desk. I don't know who did that, nobody's thoughts gave anything away." He shrugs his shoulders. "Anyway, it had a list of the top ten places where teens go on first dates. I just picked the first place on the list and she said yes."
"Oh." Carlisle and I say in unison.
I notice that Edward looks very pleased with himself as the three of us step inside. I have to tend to the laundry that's in the dryer, while Carlisle wants to go up to his Office and Edward plans to go to his room. Though before the three of us go our separate ways Edward announces that he wants to ask us something that is on his mind.
"Ask away." Carlisle encourages.
"Um. . . . It's kind of about girls. Or...well Bella." Edward struggles with the right words to ask his question as we walk further into the house.
Wondering what could have Edward all flustered like this, Carlisle and I turn to each other. Our eyes meet and linger on one another for a second before we turn back to our son and encourage him to voice his question that he seems reluctant to ask.
"Well," Edward begins looking at me. "Those things in the little blue and white box that Alice got. Bella had them too…" He lets his voice trail off.
With a raised eyebrow Carlisle gives me a sideways glance. He's clearly confused and not understanding what Edward is talking about, though I know exactly what he means.
"Those would be tampons." I answered the question he didn't fully ask. I'm still unsure why Alice bought pads and tampons. But I didn't question her about her purchase. I'm sure she has a reason for it.
"I've seen tampons and pads on TV ads and know they are designed for girls. But what are they exactly for?" Edward wonders, his eyes darting back and forth to his father and I. "Exactly, I mean."
Feeling very unprepared for this question, I turn to my husband for help.
"This is a female question. Your mother is the best one to answer it." Carlisle says to Edward. He then looks at me and winks. "You can handle this one, love."
With that, he is up the stairs before I can even utter a word. Now it's just Edward and I left in the room with his question hanging in the air. Swallowing my embarrassment, I began to figure out how to answer his question as I silently ask him to follow me to the basement to help me with the laundry. He does.
No sooner than we approach the basement that doubles as a laundry room with three washers and three dryers, an idea pops into my head. I begin to figure out how to answer his question as I open the door.
"Now, you are aware that human females have a time of the month where they bleed for two to seven days." I begin calmly, taking a step down the wooden stairs.
"Yes." He replies in a less than thrilled tone. "You and dad explained "that time of the month" to me before you guys enrolled me in school for the first time in 1935. But what's the connection?"
"Well, tampons and pads are for that. Pads are to put inside the girl's panties and catch the discarded blood so it's not so messy." I take a deep breath before I continue. "Where tampons go inside the vagina and soak up the blood that way."
Of course tampons were invented long after my time as a human but I'm still aware of their intended purpose. Though my youngest son was oblivious about it. The look on his face shows just how disgusted he is by this new fact. Walking over to the dryers I hid my amusement with his repulsion. I have my mind on laundry so he doesn't know that I find it a little funny. After all, one would assume it's something he would already know since he can read minds and has been in high school for a while now, but he doesn't. That's the thing about Edward, he's very polite and gives people privacy with their personal thoughts, or at least tries. So it's not much of a surprise that he didn't already know the answer to his question.
"That's really repulsive." He cringes, horror coloring his tone. "Anything to do with that old, nasty, smelling blood is horrible."
"Yes." I agree, removing the clothes from the dryer and placing them in the plastic laundry basket. "But I'm being honest about what they are used for."
With a sick look on his face, he nods his head. He begins removing the clothes from the washer, placing them in the now empty dryer. While I start removing clothes from the second dryer.
"Can a tampon get lost inside a girl's vagina?" Edward wonders.
"No. It has a string to allow it to be pulled out easily." I answer as casually as I can.
"That makes sense." He says, plopping an armful of clothes into the third washer and turns it on. "But what about penises?"
Not even sure where he's going with his question, I stare at him. He seems to have a lot of questions and I assume that's normal. After all, he has never thought about these types of things before.
Not wanting this conversation to be uncomfortable I turn back to the dryer. Just trying to have a casual conversation about an embarrassing topic, I continue on with my task of taking out the dry clothes and putting them in the basket. After all, it's not uncommon for my children to talk to me about important topics when I'm doing laundry.
"What do you mean?" I ask, pulling a handful of socks out of the dryer.
"Well, what happens when a penis gets stuck inside a vagina?"
"What?" I breathe the word.
"I just want to know what happens to a man if he's having sex with a woman and his penis gets stuck. What do you do in that situation?" He asks, sounding so innocent and clueless.
His question catches me off guard. I dropped the socks.
Edward quickly picks up the socks and hands them to me. As he does this I look at my sweet boy. I know he's seventeen, not a little boy though not a fully grown man. I know it's been seven decades since he's been frozen as a teen, though now he finally has human hormones and a girlfriend, which he managed to get both on the same day. But I didn't realize he would be thinking about having sex already. I assumed he would have questions about it, but not actually thinking about the act. My motherly heart says this is all happening too soon.
"Mom, I'm not thinking about having sex." Edward says, reading my thoughts.
"Okay." I say, eyeing him a little doubtfully.
"Really, I'm not." He insists. "It's just a question. Honestly it's just something I thought about right now. I'm just wondering how a man would get his penis out if it gets stuck inside a vagina."
Swallowing the shock that comes with his unexpected question, I take a deep breath. "It won't. Now maybe you should go ask your father these types of questions."
Edward shakes his head and taps his temple with his index and middle finger. "Carlisle is saying this is a question for you to answer. Also, he wants to hear your answer." He shrugs his shoulders. "So if a penis ends up getting stuck in a vagina how does the man get it out?"
I rub my hand over my forehead. Of course Carlisle is leaving this up to me. I'll have to thank him for this later.
Not sure exactly how to explain this, I close my eyes and say a silent prayer for wisdom. Opening my eyes they instantly fall on the socks that I have been holding in my hand all this time. Now I think I have an idea of how to explain this tough question. I drop all but one black sock in the laundry basket.
"One way to think of the vagina is that it's a little like a sock." I hold the sock up for him to see. He is silent. "When a sock is in a drawer, it's closed and flat. Right?"
"Yes." He answers right away.
"But what happens when you put your foot in it?" I ask. Holding the sock between both of my hands I begin lightly pulling it open.
Edward raises one eyebrow. "It stretches somewhat and takes on the shape of a foot?"
I nod my head. "Exactly. A penis and vagina work in a similar way. They don't get stuck together." I explain, dropping the sock in the basket. If I were human, I definitely would be red in the face right now.
"Well that's good to know." He says at the same time his phone rings.
He checks his phone and a wide grin spreads across his face. I don't even have to ask who's calling him, I already know. Quickly he answers his phone and makes his way out of the basement.
Now that I'm alone I let out a sigh of relief. I'm glad she called him, interrupting any more questions he may have had. I know that asking questions is a good thing and I certainly don't want to discourage him from asking anything, no matter how embarrassing or unusual it might be. But I would like to be able to prepare for it. Maybe I should buy a book or look on Google for the most frequently asked questions about sex. Then I could get an idea of what he might ask and how to go about answering anything that's on his mind.
Going back to my enormous chore of laundry, I hear the basement door open. Along with the rush of air from the open door comes the familiar fragrance of my husband. I turn to see him walking down the steps with an expression of amusement on his face.
"That was a very educational take on Sex Ed." Carlisle chuckles, walking over to me. "I did not expect an analogy about a garment for a foot to be used in that text."
His words are teasing. Despite myself I giggle, I can imagine how entertaining it was for him to listen to that conversation.
"We have five children." I say with a smile. "I do a lot of laundry, what was I supposed to say? Besides, it was the easiest thing to relate his question to."
"That was very interesting, love." He takes me in his arms and kisses me.
"I can imagine." I mumble against his lips.
Wrapped up in his embrace and caught up in our kiss that is growing by the seconds, laundry and everything else is no longer my main focus.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Thank you for reading. :)))
The purpose for Edward's unusual questions were not to make him seem unintelligent but to showcase his innocence.
Enjoyed this chapter? Leave a pleasant review. No matter how big or small, I would be delighted to hear from you.