The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks - Donald Harington [204]
His sisters, and his father too, to a lesser extent, tease him about becoming a “bookworm.” The only other person in Stay More who reads books is his cousin Jelena. When Vernon finishes his paperbacks, he takes them to Jelena and trades them to her for her paperbacks on physics, biology, art history, theater, sociology and eschatology, which is a subject that interests him most because he is still trying to understand why his mother died. One day Jelena swaps him a book on sexology. He has not been exactly ignorant of the subject, for, after all, he has been personally responsible for breeding his razorback boar to many Poland China gilts and their offspring, the sight of which has given him many a throb. And yes, although he refuses to admit it, he has had sexual fantasies involving his cousin Jelena. When he swaps books with her, he is careful not to get too close to her, because she has a certain venereal scent or fragrance that drives him wild.
The next time he goes to swap books with her, he finds her alone, her children in school and her husband off somewhere for the day selling his chickens. She gives him a Coke, and asks him what he thought of the book on sexology. He admits it was “interesting.” She asks him if there is anything he doesn’t understand. He understands just about everything, he allows, but he doesn’t quite understand why it is that animals “mate” only at certain times whereas humans apparently do it all the time. “Sit down, Vernon,” she suggests, “and we’ll talk about it.” He sits down, careful not to sit too close to her. She says, “You’re nineteen. Are you still a virgin?” That isn’t any of her business, he tells her. “I’m just trying to find out if you know what sex feels like,” she says. I can imagine, he says. “Then you have a rich imagination,” she comments, and begins her mini-lecture: “If sex is pleasurable for all creatures, why is it that for animals it is confined only to the time of rutting or ‘heat’? Did you know, by the way, that compared with animals, it is more exceptional for women than for men to be able to indulge in sex at any time of the year?” Vernon admits that he had not thought of that. “It’s true,” she goes on, “and since it’s plain that the purpose of human sex is not for procreation but for pleasure, more often than not, then this pleasure, and the absence of it, and the strong emotions inspired by both the desire and the unfulfillment of the desire, are on one hand the source of art, literature, music, religion and science, and on the other hand greed, selfishness, malice, envy and war. We are different from animals because we have a mind, imagination and an ability to reason, and these attributes originate out of our longings and desires for sex. Does that make any sense to you?”
Vernon thinks it over and grants that it does. “But our sexuality also leads us into ‘civilization,’” Jelena points out, “and civilization imposes restrictions on our sexuality. Civilization creates the institution of marriage, and standards of ‘morality.’ Marriage is a trap. But I needn’t warn you of that, because you are never going to marry, are you?”
Vernon reaffirms the intention that he first declared to her on her wedding day. “Are you,” she asks, “like so many of your uncles and great-uncles and great-great-uncles, going to remain celibate all your life?” Vernon does not answer. “We’re alone, you know,” she points out. “Mark won’t be home until suppertime.” Vernon makes no response. “Don’t you want me, Vernon?” she asks, a trifle desperately. “Am I too old for you?” Vernon can bring himself neither to nod nor shake his head. Jelena stands up. “I’m going into the bedroom,” she announces, “and I’m going to take off all my clothes and lie down on the bed.” She leaves the room. Vernon just sits there. I wish he had on that wristwatch so that we could shout at him. But perhaps he does not need it; we see him finally rise, and walk slowly to Jelena’s bedroom, where he finds her reclining on the bed, smiling