Rite Of Passage: Chapter 11

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A new day

From the sanctuary, my Aunts led me back downstairs to our apartment where we finished cleaning up and packing our things. Cleaning was an uncomfortable experience for me as I was still rather sore, but we were done in just a few minutes. I took one last look around, remembering the events of the previous evening and sighed. I would miss this place (just the apartment mind you).

Finally, when we were finished, Amber turned to us and said; "Ladies, I don't know about you, but I'm rather hungry and I'll bet poor Alison here is famished."

Now that the subject was brought up, I felt as though I could eat a horse. A few pieces of fruit will give you the energy to carry on for a while, but they don't do much for filling your stomach and satisfying an appetite.

We followed Amber from the room, back up the stairs into the sanctuary and out the main temple door. Once in the main hall, we took a right, through a small door I hadn't noticed on the way in. This led to a long carpeted hallway that followed along the outside of the sanctuary. The hallway opened into a large rectangular room, only slightly smaller than the sanctuary itself. The room was lined with long tables filled with food and people. My senses reeled with the smells of food filling the room and my mouth was watering almost before we came in the door. My aunts led me to a table at the back of the room where Angela and Jill were sitting. Their aunts were sitting together several tables away.

"This table is reserved for the newly awakened." Amber said as she steered me towards a chair. "Enjoy your breakfast dear, and meet us back at the sanctuary in an hour." With that, my aunts turned and walked away, joining the other aunts.

I sat down and looked to Angela and Jill. I was just about to say something when a small bell rang at the other end of the room. The entire room turned as one to see the High Priestess standing at the head of her table.

She held a loaf of bread in one hand and a glass in the other. Holding the two to the heavens she said softly; "Let us pray. Mother, Father, creators of all things. We give thanks this day for the gifts of your bounty. We ask that you bless this food and nourish us in body and spirit that we may continue to walk upon the paths which you have laid before our feet. We ask that you shine your countenance upon the three young women joining us this morning as they begin their adult lives. Though they may hunger of body, let them never hunger of your love. In your divine names we pray."

I was so 'hungry of body' that I almost couldn't wait for her to finish before I began digging in to the absolutely sumptuous feast laid out before us. This made the lunch feast we had yesterday look meager. Angela finished her prayer looking as ravenous as I felt, but Jill seemed withdrawn and still near to tears.

Looking to Angela, I asked; "So, how did it go for you?"

Her eyes got wide and she said; "OWW! I thought he was killing me at first! I could not BELIEVE that it could hurt that much. I thought; how could women keep doing this over the years if it hurt so. After a bit, though, it started to feel really, really good. What really freaked me out though was not just my aunts, but it seemed like ALL the priestesses in the building were there watching. I have never been so embarrassed in my life, I just wanted to fall into a hole in the ground and pull the earth in over me. I don't know about you but I still feel a bit like I've been beaten up on the inside."

"Yeah, I know what you mean;" I said with a sympathetic smile. "It still hurts a bit to close my legs. They tell me that it will go away in a day or three. I didn't have as big of an audience, but I empathize with you on the rest of it. I thought they were going to have to sew me back together when he was done with me. Thank the Mother that we only have to experience that the first time. How about you Jill, how did you fare?"

Jill looked up at us and I could tell from her expression that last night had been a waking nightmare.

"I'd rather not think about it at the moment;" she whispered through the tears beginning to well up in her eyes. "How can you talk about it so calmly? It was horrible; dirty. How can they ask us to DO such things? It hurt so much and it was so disgusting... "

With that she broke down and started to cry softly. Angela and I both got up and gave her a huge hug and held her through her tears. After a minute or two she stopped crying and was able to talk again.

"How can you act like you enjoyed it?" She asked in a barely audible whisper.

"Because that is the general idea;" Angela told her. "The act is supposed to feel good, or the human race would cease to exist. No one would want to reproduce if it wasn't pleasurable. It's only supposed to hurt the first time. What, did you think that sex was only something you did as a duty to your husband and that you weren't allowed to enjoy it?"

The look on Jills' face told the whole story; that was exactly what she believed.

"All my life, they told me it was a dirty secret. Don't look at it, don't think about it, and don't touch it. My aunts told me that when I was married, I would only have to suffer through it until I became pregnant; after that he would lose interest. They said that to enjoy it is a sin; and when he put himself in me, it hurt so much that I knew that they were right."

Angela and I both almost came unglued at hearing this, and swore to her that we would talk to our aunts and to the high priestess about this. It is one thing to keep a person innocent; it is another thing entirely to feed them a load of lies and guilt. This poor girl was probably scarred for life.

"If it helps at all," I said; "The priest who took you last night was excessively well endowed. My aunts told me that of the three who were available for last nights services, the one I got was the least well endowed; and he was HUGE. What this means, is that in all likelihood, your husband is going to be somewhat smaller and isn't going to hurt you every time that you do it. You have been taught some very wrong things. If you don't believe us then go and ask any priestess, she'll set you straight. So on your wedding night relax. If your husband loves you, he'll go slow and let you learn to enjoy the experience."

"Thank you;" She said to us, still barely more than a whisper. "I think I'm ok now. Let's eat; I'd really really like to forget last night."

The remainder of the feast we ate in silence as none of us could really think of anything more to say that would not bring up more bad memories for Jill. The food was magnificent; I thought that I had been stuffed the day before, but by the end of this meal I thought I was going to pop!

After about an hour the bell rang again. Our aunts and all the priestesses got up and filed out the door to the sanctuary. As we went to follow suit, we noticed the High Priestess stop at the door, turn and come back to us.

"Please stay a moment longer ladies;" She said. "I couldn't help but notice that young Jillian seemed to be upset. Is there anything I can do to help?"

Jill just sort of sunk into herself, Angela and I looked at her and told the High Priestess about our conversation at the table. She sighed and gave Jill a sad look.

"Ms. Anderson, I'm afraid, comes from a very reclusive sect of the church called the Maringians. Sadly, one of their beliefs is that physical union between a man and a woman is done only as a duty to the gods and to take pleasure in it is perverse. I only pray that someday they realize that they cannot pick and choose which sections of the scriptures they are going to follow. It has to be all or none. Jillian; the Scriptures STATE, that the physical union of man and woman is a celebration of life and a joyous confirmation of the gods love. Remember this, and remember your experience here last night when you are called upon someday to be an aunt and take a frightened young girl through this. Do this and you will make the experience memorable. Do this and you will heal your own hurts. Do this and the mothers love will suddenly become a great deal clearer to you."

She reached out and gently wiped a tear from Jills' eye and kissed her on the forehead. "You three need to catch up with your aunts. May the Mother bless you and keep you. I must go now, we have twenty girls coming in soon and I must prepare."

With that she turned and walked through the door on the opposite end of the room from where we were going. We started to head out the door when Angela and I noticed that Jill still seemed to be having difficulty walking, and so we took her hands and helped her down the hallway to the sanctuary.

When we got there, we noticed that all the aunts had formed up into three lines. Approaching mine, Amber looked at me and asked; "What kept you?"

"The High Priestess wanted a word with us;" I replied. When the rest of my aunts gave me a curious look, I said; "I'll tell you later."

Before I could say more, a bell chimed somewhere and two priestesses opened the main doors wide. Amber set out first and the rest of us followed in her wake; out the large brass doors and back down the rose marble hallway to the main foyer and finally outside. There were a number of cars waiting out in the parking lot and what looked to be eighteen or nineteen nervous looking young girls standing in line with their parents. I noticed several of them looking at us strangely as we walked a little bowlegged past them.

"It's ok;" I thought. "By this time tomorrow, they'll understand."

My parents were waiting just in front of them and my aunts led us over to them. We stopped in front of them and Amber, smiling, reached into her robe and pulled out the blood cloth and handed it to my mom who looked at for a moment and then beamed with what looked like pride. All my aunts came in one by one and gave me a hug and said that they would see me tomorrow. Finally, for the first time as a woman, I embraced my mother.

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