From the way she was talking, I knew she meant all the times we'd looked at (and had our hands on) each other's bodies when we were younger. She wasn't one to exaggerate things, so if she said that whatever it was was bigger than that and had to explicitly tell me how private I had to keep things, I knew I had to seriously think it over before giving her an answer. I did just that for a couple of minutes before answering "Okay, Eve. You've told me how serious it is, and how important it is that I don't tell anybody else. I'm not sure what could be that big, but you have my promise: whatever it is you want to talk to me about, nobody will ever hear about it from me."

Even then, Eva looked into my face intently for several seconds before deciding that not only was I as serious as she was, but telling the truth about keeping whatever Charlene's secret was.

As she took a deep breath in preparation, I couldn't help but wonder what the hell it would be… and was completely unprepared to hear "Charlene is a hermaphrodite."

From the way she said it, I knew I was supposed to be shocked, but I really didn't know what she was telling me. Seeing the look of puzzlement I must have had on my face, Eva explained "Charlene has both girl and boy parts."

Unfortunately, I said the first thing that came to mind: "Of course she does. Everybody has the same parts. Hearts, lungs, kidneys — all that stuff."

Showing her exasperation, she acidly told me "Not that stuff, you dummy. I'm telling you she's got girl and boy sex parts. She has a vagina like a girl, but she's also got a penis, like a guy."

As should be expected, I spent a lot of seconds trying to get my mind around that idea — and only achieved minimal success.