Palo Alto Stories

After di

“Hey, guys, settle down, settle down, I want to tell you something.” We stopped jumping and I sat on the edge and Alex lay on his stomach. My dad sat on the edge of his bed where he had sat while he was eating.

“Do you guys know how babies are made?”

“I think so,” I said.

“How?”

“The husband and wife get naked in a bath together.”

“Sick,” said Alex.

“Who told you that?” my dad said to me.

“Beatrice.” Beatrice was my best friend, a French girl that lived down the street. We had had chicken pox at the same time, and watched The Dukes of Hazzardtogether and the movie Time Bandits. She had itched her chicken pox and got an indent between her eyes, like she’d been hit by a miniature cork.

“Beatrice is wrong,” said my dad. “Yes, the man and the woman get naked but they don’t have to get into the bath. Usually they do it in a bed.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s comfortable there.”

“Why are they naked?” said my brother.

“Because the man needs to put his penis in the woman’s vagina.”

“What?”I said. My brother was squealing and squirming on the bed beside me.

“When two people are in love, that’s what they do. It’s not gross if you love each other …”

“You and mom?” I said.

“Yes.” My brother was really going crazy with the squeals then, rolling onto the floor. My dad and I started laughing.

“You did that for me and Alex?” I said. My dad nodded.

“Yes.”

“That is gross,” I said and my brother repeated me, “gross!”

Then I asked, “Do you still do it?”

My dad took a long time to answer.

Then we all got ready for bed. I let my dad and my brother brush their teeth first and then I went in there alone. I tried to brush the way my dad had told me to, but it didn’t feel right so I just brushed in my old way. The bear had ribs like I had ribs. Underneath had been lungs, and a stomach and a heart and they all got burned away.

Acknowledgments

My favorite people are teachers. I have learned tons about writing from Amy Hempel, Mona Simpson, Gary Shteyngart, Ben Marcus, Michael Cu