The Whore part III
Missed Opportunities
As told to Lionel

All my life I have been sheltered. My parents didn’t want me to be polluted by this wicked world. When I was thirteen I was even taken out of school and my mother taught me at home. I was not allowed to wear any of the cool fashions that other girls wore. I was only allowed to wear dresses. They were not the most figure flattering clothes around either. When I look back at those days I guess the best way to describe me was mousy. When it came to meeting boys I was not allowed.

“All they want from you is one thing.” I was told. “Disgusting!” Because of the strict regime I didn’t really have any female friends either.

My name is Ruth. I live alone now that my mother has died. I am twenty-three and I have inherited enough money and property that I don’t have to work. My parents looked after me very well in that respect. Its just that my life seems aimless. I have no friends, no work to do, nothing.

I have one person that I talk to and that is my back yard neighbour. Mrs. Rogers was a teacher at the high school that I was not allowed to attend. It was full of those disgusting boys and the girls there had the morals of common sluts. Mrs Rogers (Brenda) was always nice to me and was a great comfort to me when my mom passed away three months ago. I decided to go and see her about my loneliness problem.

One warm afternoon I called her and went over for a visit. We were sitting in her living room and I was talking about my friendless, lonely, existence.

“You poor child!” She exclaimed. “Do you mean you have never even been with a man?”

“No.” I replied in a low almost weeping voice. Barely controlling my emotions I continued. “I… I wasn’t allowed. Oh I was allowed and even encouraged to talk to the student minister at the church. He was okey. He was nice, but after one year he went to another congregation.”

“My god what were they thinking?” She replied half to herself.

“My parents were very strict,” I told her. “I wasn’t allowed to do a lot of things other kids were allowed to do. I could have friends my own age as long as they were girls. Boys were dirty and had dirty minds. All they wanted was one thing. The only men I was allowed to talk with were the Pastor at the church, my Dad, and Uncle Hugh. I rarely saw uncle Hugh, he lived over in Centerville across the street from my widowed Aunt Marie and Cousin Milly. My parents didn’t really like them though, they weren’t like us.”

“So you weren’t taught about the birds and the bees?” my host asked bluntly.

“Oh yes that was explained to me, but it is a subject no one discusses. It is dirty you know.”

Brenda told me that sex was a part of life. She told me how wonderful it felt and when I went home later she lent me some magazines. When I opened those books I found the most salacious, exciting material I have ever seen. There were pictures of naked people, women and men. Mom never told me that sex was fun. These people looked like they were really happy. They were enjoying themselves. I was told that a woman only had sex with her husband, and only then, because that was her duty.