Well, they each had another soda and gradually he knew that this tender bud, this beautifully bosomed Helen Troy, wanted to tell him something. At last he got her talking.

"Look, Captain Hastings, I'd love to train for a Wanderlust hostess as soon as I get my high school diploma next year. But about being, you know, sexy like you said. Well. I don't know if it shows in me, but. I got an awful scare about sex last year. Only don't tell my parents."

"Won't breathe a word," said Hank, leaning forward to hear better.

"Because it was my Uncle Hiram, my father's brother."

It is often someone in the family.

"He was out of a job, the way he mostly is, and he'd been drinking, and his wife had left him, and he wasn't attractive to women, so I suppose he was – you know?"

"Horny?"

She flushed. "Horny. And there I was. I mean, Mom and Pa went to hear a lecture on bringing out the best in teenagers, for parents only, and there I was alone in the house with Uncle Hiram."

"Well, it was summer, long days, and I went jogging with some of the other kids, came in all sweaty. Waved to Uncle, who was sitting on the porch, and ran on upstairs and I guess he heard the shower going and I guess he heard when I turned it off. And even when I opened the glass door of the shower stall. Because by then he was listening at the bathroom door, you see."

"I see," said Hank Hastings grimly.

"And I hadn't been able to lock the bathroom door. That was because he had jammed the lock. He knew we'd be alone and I'd be taking a shower."

"He walked in me. I was naked. I made a little scream and grabbed a towel around my waist and put my arm across my, you know, my bosom. He laughed and just grabbed me and dragged me through the hall. I screamed louder and he hit me so hard I went half-fainting and I just about knew he had me in the spare room and had tossed me on the bed."