In life there are things we may never wrap our minds around. We may never know why he didn’t call us back. We may always sit up at night wondering where the one who got away is tonight. However, by far the greatest curiosity of all is not love but sex. For years society has tackled with the idea of sex. Once upon a time it was completely taboo. Much like the prohibition it only existed in a seedy underground scene that very few knew about. Later on down the road of course, it rose to the surface. It showed up in television shows, magazines, and hell it even showed up our in museums. However, regardless of how causal the topic of sex became could we ever really say we knew everything there was to know about it?
In a basement on long island while spread across a futon Alison Quinn found herself questioning how much she really knew about sex as she watched her boyfriend shuffle through a drawer of condoms across the room. It was their four month anniversary and they had been talking about doing the deed for quite some time now. Alison was a virgin and had been waiting for this night for what seemed like ever. As she looked the room decorated in her boyfriend’s younger sister’s collection of American Girl Dolls, she couldn’t ignore the fact that the night wasn’t as picture perfect as she thought it would be. As she stared into the glossy eyes of the dolls around her she couldn’t help but wonder if they knew just what was about to transpire. Maybe there harsh looks were telling her to run for the hills. Maybe the dolls were secretly searching the room for the rose petals and glade candles Alison was expecting that night.
Earlier that evening her boyfriend Paul took her out to an Italian restaurant where he later attempted to pull a lady and the tramp with a plate of spaghetti while playing footsie with her under the table. Alison assumed it was his idea of foreplay. As she stared around the room nervously she watched as waiters carried baskets of bread around the restaurant. Alison could feel Paul’s eyes on her as she avoided eye contact with him like the plague. Her eyes kept wandering to the door of the restaurant in hope a circus would bust through the doors and cause a commotion distracting everyone sipping there red wines and sucking down spaghetti. “Honey, I know you’re scared about tonight but I promise it will be fine. I know everything there is to know about sex. I won’t let anything happen that isn’t supposed to.” Paul said to Alison while grabbing her clammy hands from across the table. Alison smiled nervously as nearly every song ever written about sex played quietly In the back of her mind.
Before she knew it the night was over and the deed had been done. It wasn’t beautiful, it wasn’t electric. It was more like McDonalds. Quick, somewhat satisfying and when you’re done with it you’re never quite sure if you’ll ever want to have it ever again. “Why is sex such a big deal, this is what all those great novels are about?” Alison thought as she mentally revisited the act. Something about it left Alison’s mind spinning. Was it god for her? Was it good for him? Naturally she spent the next week talking over the mental aftermath with her friends.
“I’ve been reading all these books about it, I’m telling ya’ Becs its maybe one of the most controversial topics to have ever been talked about. Everyone has something different to say about it. Some say its a way to connect spiritually, some say it’s just an animal act. Some don’t know what to say and focus on the minute details like where and when and how”, Alison explained to her friend Rebecca Cruz while she combed the isle of her local bookstore searching for more answers. Rebecca raised her eyebrow “Alison, the truth about it is you may never know everything there is to know about sex. I’ve had it plenty of times in few different situations and hell, I still have no idea what it’s all about. See sex works a lot like breakups, both parties walk away taking something totally different from what transpired and there’s usually a likely hood both parties will spend their lives wandering how it all really went down.” This left Alison with even more questions.
Later that day Alison began to accept that maybe some curiosities are better left to a certain level of mystery. Perhaps it was for the best she didn’t know everything there was to know about sex. After all when it comes to sex all we really need to know is that safe sex should always practiced and that it should take place between two consenting adults. Maybe the rest is all left to circumstance. After all curiosities make the world go round. Was it not traveling freak shows that baffled and intrigued thousands of viewers? Is it not street performers swallowing knifes and performing impossible tasks that make us stop dead in our tracks in the middle of our busy days? Maybe some things are meant to leave you thinking. Alison began to accept the fact that she might spend her entire life trying to figure it out, and maybe just maybe one day she would crack the code. But until then she would just have to settle for being an occasional participant in an ongoing enigma.
