is, to be frank, a more simple problem than you probably think. But that does not mean that solving it will be easy. There is no way to attack it directly, as you have found out, I am sure. But there are certain exercises and activities which arouse certain faculties in you. These will also, by the way, be helping myself and others in dealing with their own special areas of research. But for now, just let me plant an idea in your mind: think not so much of content as you do of capacity."
"I'm not quite sure I understand," I said.
"That's all right," Tocco replied. "The words will work their own magic inside you." He paused and looked around the table. Everyone was listening to our words with rapt attention. He continued, "But talk has a way of clouding as many issues as it resolves. It would be much better if we provided you with some actual activity." He smiled his most devastating smile and asked, "Have you ever ravished a child, Michael?"
I must have blanched, for he turned to the group and said, "Yet another prejudice in our stalwart scholar of sex." Then he faced me again and said, "Let's adjourn to the next room."
We rose, and I followed him through a door into a large room which was decorated with leather couches and a grab-bag of odd pieces. He paused and called to the two little girls, "Come on, children."
A Mozart quintet was playing, and sunlight came in through one of the windows. I noticed that behind the windows were a set of iron bars. Tocco went to one of the shelves and returned with a cardboard box with the title, "Hospital, A Medical Game For Children."
"Have you ever played doctor, Michael?" Tocco asked. My throat was dry. "No . . . it's one of the ..." I stopped. "See here, Tocco ..." I began again.
He was totally avuncular. "Now, Michael, why don't you play with Sarah and Jean here? I'm sure it will be very instructive, and you are here to learn, aren't you?" He put the box down and began to leave the room. "Have a good time, children," he said.
I turned and saw the two girls watching me solemnly. This was my first good look at them. Sarah was the taller of the two. She had olive skin and short cropped hair, and wore tight jeans and a polo shirt. Jean was dressed more traditionally, with auburn curls, and a frilly skirt over a pair of mesh stockings. I had no way of knowing how experienced they were, whether they had done this before, or even whether they were still virgins.
Suddenly Sarah knelt down to take the cover off the box. As she leaned forward the jeans tightened against her buttocks. She had a tiny but exquisitely-shaped ass. I stared at her haunches. She looked up, looked back at her legs, then looked back at me, and smiled.
An odd sense of unreality settled over the room. What did the smile mean? Was she being seductive? Could a little girl be seductive? Of course, but was she aware of what she was doing? What was innocence, anyway? What was going on in her head? I had to know, and the only way to get there was to play the game: the game in the cardboard box, and the game that had been set up among the three of us.
Being the oldest, I thought I should serve as leader. "Jean," I said, "you be the nurse and I'll be the doctor, and Sarah can come in for an examination." I heard my words ring hollowly and my heart began to worry at whether this was grotesque. I looked at Sarah and she returned my level gaze. Yes. she was the one I wanted. She was to lie down and let me know her body. I wondered whether there might be a more subtle way to approach it, but it seems that children appreciate directness. Jean began to poke through the instruments in the game box and Sarah turned to me and said, "Should I take my clothes off or do you want to undress me?"
The palms of my hands grew moist. All the dirty-old-man fantasies I had ever had rushed through my head. But could I be a dirty old man if there was also a dirty young child? And what was wrong with having