Page 36 of A Lesson In Beginning

Nothing about that had been painful.

Not even bothering to clothe myself again, I curled up in the blankets, my mind finally at peace as sleep took over at last.

* * *

“Ruth, might I have a word with you?”

I had been pacing around my room all morning, nervous beyond measure. Granted, I had awoken to more feelings from my midnight explorations. I had half a mind to let my fingers wander yet again, but when Samuel tried to open the door — only to find it locked — he had gone into a bit of a panic. It had very effectively squashed any feelings of arousal — and woke up the entire house.

I’d had quite the time explaining to Ruth and Levi how I had ‘accidentally’ locked the door. Though I think Levi may have seen through my ruse; the blush on my face, combined with the small smirk of knowing on his face, made it seem as though he saw right through my little white lie.

“Ruth?” I asked again, her back still to me as she folded the laundry.

Still nothing.

I crept into her bedroom, calling her name and third and then a fourth time before reaching out, tapping her shoulder lightly.

“Christ on a cracker!” She jumped nearly straight up in the air, turning on her heel to face me as she pulled something from her ear. “Adah, you startled me.”

“I’m so sorry. I called your name. Several times, in fact.” I winced slightly at my acerbic tone. That was not the way I wanted to start out this conversation.

“I had my buds in. I apologize.” She held up a small white circle, as though that explained anything at all.

“Your what?”

“My earbuds. These.” She held out the two small circle pieces for me to see, still offering no further explanation.

“Oh, to fill your ears and drown out the noise? Like cotton balls when you have an ear infection.” It made perfect sense in my mind, but as she looked at me bewildered, and then laughed, I felt the irritation that only a sister knows bubble up inside of me. “I don’t see what’s so funny, Ruth.”

“Oh, cool off, Adah. I’m not laughing at you. I only just realized how confusing it must be for us to just show you something and expect you to understand. You haven’t had the last two and a half years to acclimate as we have.” Touching my arm gently, she offered me a smile, and I felt my ire cooling.

“So I take it they aren’t for canceling out noise?”

“No, they are for music. Or podcasts, if you’re anything like Levi. I swear, the man has been obsessed with those things for the last year.” She shook her head with a smile.

“How do those two little circles provide music?” I reached out, picking one of the pieces up and turning it in my hand. There were little holes in the hard plastic in one particular spot, but still I was confused.

“Hold it up to your ear and you’ll see.” She picked up her phone off the bed, hitting a few buttons as I lifted it to my ear. Suddenly, the sounds of a swelling orchestra filled my ears. My eyes widened in shock, taking a moment to listen before handing the bud back to her.

“You can listen to any music you wish?”

“Anything. We should get you a pair! It’s quite nice to have when working on the cleaning and things. Passes the time in a much more enjoyable way. Did you need something?”

“Oh, right. That.” The nerves overcame me for a moment, realizing now I had to actually say the thing I came to say.

“Are you alright?” Her brow furrowed as she saw right through me, picking up the nervous energy I was surely radiating at that point.

“I wanted to speak with you.”

“Of course. Anything.” She took my arm, leading me to the bed, where she pushed a few piles of now folded clothing to the side, making room for us both to sit.

“It’s something of a… well… an intimate nature, I suppose.” I took a deep breath, urging my stomach to stop spinning around in my belly. It was just sex. This wasn’t that big of a deal. It shouldn’t have been, at least.

“You know you can talk to me about anything.” Her hand laid atop of my own, giving me courage to speak my truth.

“I wanted to talk to you about The Temple. Last night, Joel took me back out into the main room.” I began, my hands wanting so badly to fidget, but her hand kept me still.

“Did something happen? It’s important that you tell me, so that if something negative happened, or someone did something to make you uncomfortable, we can handle it.” There was a serious tone to her voice, a protectiveness I had not expected to hear from her.

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