I'd almost certainly lose everything I own so that I could try to pay for lawyers so I could try to stay out of jail or prison, or at least be there for as little time as possible. The last thing is that people would know that I did touch you that way, and everybody would think I was some kind of pervert or child molester. I probably wouldn't be able to get a job anyplace because of that, and nobody would want to be my friend. Almost nobody would want to have anything to do with me; I probably wouldn't even be able to have a girlfriend. The last thing is part of the against the law part — all of that would happen to me if anybody ever found out about it… the police, one of your teachers, the parents of one of your friends, anybody could tell on me, and get me into all that trouble. Now, I know that I'm not doing anything to hurt you, or trying to trick you into doing anything you don't want to, and I'm willing to help you like you want. But I have to be sure that I'm not going to have all those other problems because of it — I have to know that I can trust you not to say anything to anybody that would tell on me. Remember, almost every adult you know would think that I was doing something bad to you, and would tell on me because they didn't understand what we were doing, and why. You'd have to be careful about all the people you know that are your age, too, because I think you know that they don't always think about things the way they should before they say or do something — and it would only take just one of them to make a mistake like that to get me into all that trouble. So you have to decide if you can really keep it secret that I'm helping you with stuff like this."

By the time I was done, I could see that she was horrified by all that might (probably would!) happen if anyone found out what she wanted me to do. She was old enough to understand that as bad as things had been after her parents divorced, she and her sister and mother hadn't lost everything, or had to face the kinds of personal problems that I'd described. It was plain as it could be that she knew how serious what she'd asked was, and that she understood the consequences of failing to keep that particular secret.