The girl and her sister had never seen their father lightly dresses. He always wore long pants and a long-sleeved shirt, even in the summer. Their mother, on the other hand, would walk around in her underwear very often. Their mother’s and father’s bodies felt different. One often almost naked, one always very covered.
The TV is on. The whole family is in the living room. The girl, her sister, her father and her mother are all sitting on the couch, in front of the TV. It is dark outside. The room is also dark, except for the light emanating from the TV. A movie is showing. The girl is happy to be there, with everyone. She loves watching TV, especially movies. She is also somewhat stressed, at once hopeful and fearful there would be any sensual or sexual parts in the movie. She is curious but knows that her father would not like to be in the same room with her if such scenes would be shown. He usually gets annoyed and storms out of the room; without really saying anything, he huffs and puffs on his way out of the room, clearly showing his discontent with the situation.
The dreaded and expected moment finally arrives; the movie characters are kissing. What should I do? the girl wonders. She wants to watch; she is curious and wants to find out more. This is the only possibility she has of finding out more about this kissing thing, and more. She watches. Then she turns her eyes away from the screen, for a few seconds, but the curiosity gets the best of her and she watches the screen again. She looks away again. She knows that her father is not happy with this situation. She does not know what to do. She wants to watch but tries not to show it. She can feel her father, who is sitting on her right, not very close but yet not far, getting restless. Should I stand up and leave? the girl asks herself. But she does not want to leave. She wants to keep watching. She dreads the idea of standing up, in front of everybody, walking out of the room. No, she could not do that. Everybody would look at her. Her father generally does that. How would he feel if she does it? But, what if he asks her to leave the room instead this time? She does not want that. She keeps on turning her eyes to the TV set and away from it, not knowing what to do, what would happen. Then the characters start undressing. The father stands up abruptly. The girl does not dear to look at him; she keeps on watching the screen. He is out of the room. She can keep on watching. The tension is gone.