“Sorry, I’m just not use to being forced to only look at your face.”
“You’re not forced,” Jessie tried reasoning. “It’s, it’s just, embarrassing.”
“Well then, why are you not wearing underwear?”
“I just came from my shower. I walked into your room with just a towel on and saw your shirt on the bed. So I put it on. Sometimes I don’t wear underwear under your shirts; it wasn’t a big deal or anything. But I didn’t know I would be stuck with you.”
“You know, I used to see you down there all the time,” Jack said to her.
“Yeah, and then I turned seven and we stopped bathing together. I still don’t see why we had to.”
“That was your mother’s doing, not mine. She’s lightened up a lot after that. She said if she could do it again, she’d give us another year, maybe two. But by the time she realized how self-conscious you got, it was too late to start back up again.”
“I’m not self-conscious,” Jessie defended.
“You’re not so bad anymore. But you were there for quite some time. Almost snobbish. Stopped appreciating the simple things in life.”
“Well, you can’t get much more simple than this,” Jessie waved her hands around.
“Do you appreciate it?”
“Ha,” she laughed. Then looked to her father. “A little. At least I’m with you.”
“Three years ago, you wouldn’t have stopped yelling and crying until you got out of here and got to play with all your toys and friends. Three years before that, you would have thought this was the greatest adventure in the world.”
“It’s called growing up, daddy.”
“Well, I’m grown up and I’m just fine without all the stuff you seem to need.”
“Yeah, but you’re daddy, so you’re different.”
The conversation progressed, slowly changing into two more topics in the course of an hour and a half before the two fell silent, staring up at the ceiling. They laid together for another half hour in the quiet before Jack tried taking his daughter’s small hand into his large one. Jessie pulled away before even thinking.
“Am I not even allowed to touch you because you’re not wearing underwear?”
“I’m sorry, daddy. I didn’t mean to pull away.” Jessie’s hand crawled back to her father’s and took a hold of it. “I was kind of hoping you would forget about me not having underwear on too, but I guess that’s just going to keep haunting me.”
“Sorry, sweetie. I wasn’t thinking about it,” he lied, “it just popped into my head right then without notice.”
The two rotated their heads back down toward each other.
“What time is it do you think?” Jessie asked.
“Maybe two o’clock.”
“I think that will be the hardest part. Not knowing the time.”
“Well, we can see the sunlight from under the door, so we’ll know when it gets dark.”
They fell into silence for a few more moments.
“So,” Jack sparked back up, “see any good looking boys in the neighborhood yet?”
“Noo. Daddy…”
“Just asking. We have a lot of time, might as well talk about it.”
“I don’t think right now is the best time for one of those talks,” Jessie complained.
“How about you give me a talk then? Talk to me about stuff you might think I would talk to you about.”
“Like, one of those talks?”
“Yeah. Why don’t you give me a talk? And I’ll listen to everything you say.”
“I don’t know,” Jessie questioned. After a short pause, she started back up. “Um, is there any girls you have your eyes on?” she asked nervously.
“Just your mom.”
“Good. You should keep it that way.” She waded quietly in thought. “Um, do you have any questions?”
“Uh, where do babies come from?” Jack asked amusedly.
“Daddy…”
“Don’t ask me a question if you’re not prepared to hear the answer. That’s a very important thing to learn.”
“Fine… Um, well, when a man and a woman do it, um, when he puts his sperm in her, it goes into her womb where she sometimes has an egg. Uhh, daddy…”
“You’re doing great.”
“Aaah. Well, then, then the sperm fertilizes the egg and a baby starts to grow. It grows for nine months and then it comes out of the girl’s you-know-what. When we get out of here, I’ll give you the book on pollination that you gave me a long time ago, if you want more details.”
“Interesting,” Jack responded. “What’s a you-know-what?”
“Aahh, it’s a, a vagina.”
“Coool.”
“Jeez,” Jessie exhaled.
They went back to silence.
“Are we going to have to lay down for the entire day and a half,” Jack complained.
“Mmmmmmm,” Jessie moaned and then gulped. “We can sit up I guess. Just let me go first.”
Jessie cautiously pulled her body up and scooted back against the wall. She made extra sure the whole time to keep the shirt between her legs. Jack then sat up and pushed himself to the other wall facing his daughter not even thinking.
“Daddy, that’s the worst spot to sit,” she complained.
Jack inhaled deeply. He knew he unconsciously did pick a bad spot for the situation, but still he wasn’t going to take this mood of hers for a whole another day.
He stood up abruptly, startling Jessie, and reached to the button on his khaki shorts. In three seconds, they were falling to his ankles. Then his thumbs dipped into his boxers.
Jessie was too stunned to speak. She saw him pushing his underwear down and instinctively closed her eyes and looked away. Seconds later, she felt them fall onto her legs.
“Honey, they may not fit, but you can wear those. It seems you need them more than me. I have nothing to hide from you, but for your sake, I’ll turn out the light just in case.”
Jessie peeked up momentarily to see what her father was doing and caught his completely naked body reaching up with his shorts in his hand to unscrew the light bulb partway.
The light flickered out and with it, so did all of Jessie’s pride. Did she really push her father that far? Was he really that mad at her? He gave her his own underwear to shut her up. Because she was too proud to be seen by her own daddy.
Jessie immediately jumped up and leaped to the barely there shadow that was her father. She almost knocked him off balance as he attempted to put his shorts back on but he ditched those to save himself. Jessie pulled him into a sobbing hug.
“I’m so sorry daddy. Please forgive me. I don’t need you’re boxers. I don’t care anymore. You’re just daddy. I love you.”
Jack was pushed back to the wall where his legs gave way slowly and he skidded down to the floor. His bare butt bumped hard into the shag rug and so inappropriately, his daughter’s naked crotch bounced over his own thankfully flaccid one.
“I’m sorry daddy,” Jessie cried into him.
“It’s alright,” he tried consoling her. He had to get her off of him. He was growing, and fast.
“I didn’t mean anything I said. I wasn’t thinking. I don’t know why I was being so immature. Mmm,” she finished in a surprised moan.
Jack’s full erection was warmly squeezing itself between his twelve year old daughter’s butt cheeks. The two remained completely silent and motionless for nearly a minute, only feeling each other’s increasing heartbeats.
“I’m sorry daddy,” Jessie said again with a little fear in her voice. Jack could tell she was apologizing for something different now.
“For what?” he asked soothingly.
“For this. For what’s happening now.”
“Why are you sorry? This isn’t your fault.”