Hestia Strikes a Match by Christine Grillo

Author:Christine Grillo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

4

BROTHER JAMIE

Two years into becoming single again, I felt it was time to start a Scribbles unit on love. We’d already moved through prompts about the war, our childhoods, and our marriages—and my students had flat-out refused to write about the latter two. “Feh,” was the general consensus on both topics. But when I said we’d be writing about love … Oh, how their faces lit up.

Mildred stood up from her desk and held her cane high, like a torch welcoming the downtrodden.

“Let’s tell Hestia Harris about love!” she said.

Jeffrey stomped his feet in approval.

“Hear ye, hear ye!” said Dorothy.

“Finally,” said Charles. “I get to impart wisdom.”

“Settle down, everyone,” I said. “Hestia Harris is doing fine.”

While the class tried not to laugh—I saw Mildred coaching them to zip it—Clara stood up, put her hands on her heart in prayer, and bowed to me.

“Of course you are,” she said.

We spent a couple of weeks reading women’s magazines, in search of love quizzes with interesting questions. The five of them agreed on a list of prompts, from which I removed the queries about sexual techniques, despite how eager they were to share what they had learned.

“You’re no fun, Hestia,” said Jeffrey.

“Your children and grandchildren are going to read this,” I said.

“Are you kidding?” he balked. “They can handle it.”

But I held my ground. “Rated PG,” I insisted. As a compromise, we spent a class session sharing out loud.

“I was late to the party,” said Jeffrey, “but I learned to do some things with my tongue.”

Clara gave us some insight into tantric practices. Charles insisted that communication was the best lubrication, and Dorothy concurred, wishing that she’d learned to use her words earlier.

“What I’d tell any young woman is this: Be the boss in the bedroom,” she said.

Mildred listened carefully. “This is what our readers want,” she said.

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