Magpie Tales#72

From Willow Manor comes a picture prompt which sparks mixed memories.

Wheat Field with Rising Sun, Vincent Van Gogh, 1889

End Of Term

  I lost my virginity in a wheatfield. It had been a summer of sticky weather. I was seventeen. I needed to satisfy my curiosity. Urges came a poor second as I remember, and we all go through phases of not knowing quite what we're doing or why, don't we? The thing about losing your virginity, it's not like losing your credit card. You can't apply for a replacement.  When I trailed home afterwards Mum asked  what had I been doing and why had I bits of straw stuck in my hair. I think she knew, but said nothing direct.

  The girls' school called him Tonka or Tonker, either was appropriate, but those were nicknames.   He was Jason.  He was a great rugby player. First fifteen captain and put together like a brick shed. He seemed ideal and some of the girls had been very direct about his attributes, things I'd seen only as anatomical drawings in the toilets, some - I couldn't help thinking - massively exaggerated. One such, in the gym toilet was titled "Tonker's plonker."  Nothing ventured, as they say, and it was near the end of term, so I asked if he'd like to walk me home via a scenic route.  

  He seemed quite well up on underclothes and told me a joke as he went about it. Imagine. On your back, knickers round one ankle, bra unhooked, and I'm wondering what's happening down there, not much except it hurts quite a bit and he's telling me a joke about this farmer who set one of the lads to harvest the wheatfield with the combine. It would take him most of the day. 

  Not so for Jason, who seemed to have finished and rolled off me and stared at the sky, saying sorry, Luce, you smell so nice. I didn't know what to think. I had felt almost nothing. I mean, nothing pleasant, nothing like I made myself feel sometimes after I got into bed.  To cover our embarrassment I asked him to finish the joke.

  "Well, the farmer was pleased, but wondered why there was a small square in the middle of the field where the combine hadn't cut the wheat."  He threw the limp condom away.

  "The driver said he wanted to leave that bit as a memento of the spot where he first made love."

  I wanted to say something about love, but fastened my bra instead.

  "The farmer thought that was quite sweet. Then he noticed another uncut patch in one corner of the field and asked was that where they did it again?"

   I steadied myself, hand on Jason's shoulder while I hitched up my knickers.

  "The driver said, no, that was where her mother was standing."  He tucked in his shirt and zipped his pants and we pulled on our school blazers.

   "The farmer said, you mean there you were humping away in the middle of the field with her mother watching from over by? Actually watching!"

   We started toward the lane and our homes.

   "What on earth did her mother say?"

  Jason opened the field gate for me. I said "Well, what did her mother say?"

  "Oh, her usual. Baaa! Baaa!" and then, quite gently, he laid his arm round my shoulders and just for a minute I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.