She can remember back a long time. She can remember being three and four. Her sister was about to be born. She was waving up to her mom on the fourth floor of a hospital somewhere downtown.
There was a lot of traffic and she was standing next to her dad looking up at her mother waving, but she didn’t understand that her current position as Primary Princess was about to be usurped by a small brunette bundle wrapped in a white flannel receiving blanket with the family’s characteristic big blue eyes.
Kristie was sent to nursery school to give her mom some quality time with the new baby, and to prepare her for starting kindergarten. Kristie enjoyed playing with the other kids – especially the boys. Would you expect anything less? Two boys in particular waited for her at the entrance every morning.
She would sing a little song, “Johnny and Tommy waiting for me… Right at the door is where they will be…” Sure enough Johnny and Tommy were waiting right by the door just like the song said.
They would play on the monkey bars or in the sand box. If one of the boys had to pee, he would invite Kristie into the large tiled public restroom to watch. He was proud of his yellow stream and how he could aim for the toilet. Kristie thought this was pretty neat. She had no idea about the male anatomy and when she tried to pee standing up, she made a huge mess all over herself and the floor.
The teachers were shocked and dismayed. They changed her clothes and put a pair of boy’s underpants on her just to intensify the humiliation. Even though the restroom had no doors and was open to both sexes, they said that Kristie couldn’t go in there to watch the boys anymore. It was “nasty” they said. She thought it was good that at least she had a name for it now. She began to ask the boys, “Do you want to play nasty?”
At that age “nasty” was just watching someone go pee… She didn’t begin the mutual fondling until a couple of years later. This was just normal curiosity and if the adults would have simply explained the differences in male female anatomy, she probably wouldn’t have become so obsessed with it.
The teachers made a big deal of the subject parading one poor boy up in front of the whole school. He had gotten a rash from a public toilet, they said as they stripped him down to a t-shirt to show everyone the rash on his buttocks. The poor kid was humiliated and crying, but they were harsh. “Don’t ever sit on a public toilet seat or this could happen to you!” the old witches harped.
Kristie was terrified during nap time and could not get to sleep. Instead, she feigned sleep and pretended to snore really loud. Soon all the kids were giggling and snorting along with her. If her grandmother hadn’t been the primary investor of the school, she probably would have been kicked out. Teachers should know that really smart kids don’t like to nap much.
Soon she had another boyfriend. One who would like to go into the garage and lock the door and expose himself while trying to get a kiss or two. They were like five, so what’s the big deal? But the boy’s mom blamed it all on Kristie, forbade him from playing with her. He pleaded, “But Mom, we’re going to get married.” She wouldn’t listen and they moved in short time.
There was never a shortage of other boys to play with. Soon she had another boyfriend and another… But the one thing she learned from nursery school was, “Never sit on a public toilet seat!” She was marked for life.
(First published 11/19/12)
