Speak Up!

Monica loved playing basketball. Her best friend, Tina, liked it less, but still both girls liked being out in the driveway on a warm sunny day while Monica made several perfect jump shots and Tina tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to get rebounds.

"You know," said Monica taking a break while she dribbled the ball, "I saw my nephew, Dave, the other day."

"Yeah? The cute one we used to babysit?"

"Right, but he's twelve now and not so cute. He had some funny news for me."

"What kind of funny news?" asked Tina.

"Well, he remembered how when I babysat him, I used to say things like, 'Sometimes I wish I were a boy, so I could take my shirt off in public the way you can.' It turns out that the courts made some kind of ruling that it's discrimination not to let women go topless if men go topless, so now I can take off my shirt in public. Dave was so eager to tell me that. Like he expected me to pull off my shirt and show him my boobs right then and there."

"Did you?" asked Tina with a laugh.

"No!"

"Are you going to, now?" After all, Monica only wore very short shorts and a tank top when playing basketball. Topless wouldn't have been that big a step.

"Not funny!" said Monica chest passing the ball straight into Tina's stomach.

"Ow!" said Tina rubbing her stomach as the ball dribbled away.

"Sorry," said Monica running over, "are you okay?"

"Yeah, I think the ball went over there."

Monica ran after the ball and Tina followed. As it happened, the ball stopped rolling in front of a familiar house where a man was watering his lawn.

"Mr. Greenberg!" called out Monica with delight.

"Little Monica!" said Mr. Greenberg with equal delight. "I haven't seen you in a long time." He paused. " I remember, on a hot day, you used to have an odd habit of showing up here right when I was doing something with my hose. Are you still like that?"

"Umm. . .sure why not?" Then she let out a delighted scream as he turned the hose onto her.

Mr. Greenberg looked at Tina, "You too, young lady?"

"Actually," said Tina, "I'd rather--"

"Sure, her too!" called out Monica.

Tina sighed and tried to enjoy the cool spray on her face.

"So how have you been, Monica?" asked Mr. Greenberg turning off the hose and coming over to the girls. "You know, you really are becoming a beautiful woman." Monica looked a little surprised when he hugged her and kissed her cheek, but she smiled and accepted the kiss.

"Um. . .I've been good."

"Great." Mr. Greenberg's hand was still on her belly touching the bare area between her shorts and her tank top. Moreover, he didn't look like he was going to let go anytime soon.

"Well," said Monica trying to peel herself away, "maybe I should-"

"And you're playing basketball, too. That's cool." Mr. Greenberg's hand was moving up Monica's torso and onto her breast.

"Mr. Greenberg!" said Monica emphatically. "Tina and I really have to get away now."

"Are you sure? You could come inside. I've got lemonade-"

"No thank you! Let's go, Tina."

"Well, all right," said Mr. Greenberg giving her a last peck on the cheek. Then, he called out, "Good meeting you, Tina."

"Good meeting you too," said Tina from a safe distance.

As soon as Mr. Greenberg was out of earshot, Tina said, "Wow! You have some. . .interesting neighbors. Does that one always manhandle you?"

"No, of course not! When I was a little girl, he was very nice."

"Hmm. . .It must have something to do with you 'becoming a beautiful woman'."

"Right," said Monica uncomfortably. She took a deep breath and looked like she was trying to lighten the mood. "We probably shouldn't let my mom hear about this."

"What? Why not?"

"Well, she's always giving me those lectures about how, in summer, I don't wear enough clothes when I'm out in public. 'Our block isn't a nudist colony, young lady.' If she hears a story like this, she'll be going, 'I told you so!' "

Monica seemed to be making a joke, but Tina couldn't help frowning. "Are you serious? Your mother would blameyou for that?"

"Isn't that how mothers always are?"

"All right, we don't have to tell your mother. But don't you think we should tell someone else?"

"Like who? I'm not trying to get anyone in trouble. Mr. Greenberg probably just didn't realize. . ."

"Well," said Tina, "if that's true, then I know exactly who we should tell."

"Who?"

"Mr. Greenberg!" said Tina a little bit sarcastically, "so he'll 'realize. . .' " She took a breath. "Seriously, you can be as nice and polite about it as you want. Say, 'Mr. Greenberg you touched me in a way that I kind of didn't like.'--You can even add in a sentence like, --'It's partly my fault for coming around dressed the way I was.'-- I wouldn't say that, but you can if you want to--'Please don't do it again."

"Forget it, Tina. Can't we just talk about something else, already?"

When the girls got back to Monica's house, they found a small surprise. Monica's nephew, Dave, was there. Monica and Dave hugged. Tina knew Dave, but she wasn't sure if her friend's nephew that she had met a few times was someone you hugged, someone you kissed on the cheek, or someone you just shook hands with, so she smiled and waved to him from a distance.

"You're wet," Dave observed.

"Oh. Yeah." Both girls had almost forgotten that. "So," said Monica, "how have you been?"

"Okay." He didn't really sound okay.

The girls looked at each other. "Just okay?" Monica asked.

"Well, Seeing you two again has kind of made me think about things."

"What kind of things?" asked Tina.

Dave shrugged. "It's kind of silly." He forced a smile. "If I told you, you'd probably laugh at me."

"We promise not to," said Monica.

"Well. . .do you remember when you were my babysitter?"

"Sure, we had a lot of fun. . .didn't we?"

"Oh mostly. . ." said Dave trying to be reassuring, ". . .but sometimes in summer when it was hot, you would talk about taking off shirts and you'd tell me that I should take off mine. Sometimes I'd feel a little scared about seeing you in summer because I thought you'd start pressuring me to take my shirt off."

Monica looked stunned. "Nobody was pressuring you. We just wanted you to be comfortable. . ." She glanced at Tina for support, but Tina didn't know what to say to this either.

"Also," Dave went on, "if I did take my shirt off, you might both yell something like, 'Tickle Torture!' and then you'd both tickle me until I was out of breath."

There was a silence. Monica spoke first, "We thought you liked that."

"I did. . . a little. . .at first but well. . ."

Now Tina spoke, "Actually, what I think Monica's asking is why didn't you say something to us." Then she added, "so we'd have realized."

"I don't know," said Dave, "I guess because I was a kid and you were older and I didn't know what to say."

Another long pause. Finally, Monica crouched to Dave's height and said, "I'm really sorry."

"It's okay," said Dave smiling and putting his arm around her.

Later, after Dave had left, Monica looked at Tina pensively. "You know," she said, "could you come here tomorrow."

"To get whipped at basketball again? I guess."

"No, silly! I want us to go speak with Mr. Greenberg together. I don't want to do it by myself, but I do think I should speak with him."

"Oh," said Tina more soberly. "So he'll realize?"

Monica nodded, "So he'll realize."

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