Becoming A Woman

My school boyfriend was always much more mature than his age. He had a need, deep in him for a girl. I was 14, he came to my house to have a man talk with my mother. My mother was a single mother who worked at Sears and I was a latchkey kid. She did not appreciate him telling my mother he was there for me, taking me with him to his house. She stood between him and the door. He had my wrist, he was serious. To settle the standoff she told him he could have me, but I had to stay with her.

He agreed, we went back to my bedroom and he had me. No romance, as the girl I knew what was coming so I laid back. He was serious. I knew he was serious. When a man is intent on you, it's over. I walked out of the room and my mother asked me if I was a woman. I was. She told me to get my apron on and fix dinner for my man.

That is how it was where I grew up. That is how you became a woman. If you failed to take care of your man there were other girls, some were already women. The women met at the laundromat, the size of your belly told them you were a woman and not a girl. You told them who your man was. You now talked with the women, the girls hung out together folding clothes hot out of the dryer.