Their reconciliation is helped, of course, by the fact that just because Don put his foot in his mouth does not mean that Dale has stopped writing to him, and, by extension, Bobby. Don dutifully shares Dale's letters with Bobby when asked and sends back Bobby's replies. It makes him feel a little like he's been replaced as Dale's big brother, if he thinks about it too hard, so he tries not to.
And then the worst happens.
Of course it's to be expectedâor Don should have expected it, has even told Bobby that he was anticipating itâgiven that Dale is nearly thirteen and beginning to feel the first, confusing stirrings of teenage desire for his peers. Still, Don is blindsided by the request until he considers it more carefully and realizes that, while Don received a fumblingly awkward explanation of the birds and the bees from his father, Dale has no one to give him a similar run-down of how things work between two men. Except, through Don, Bobby Moch.
It's hard to tell which part of it is more horrifyingâthe prospect of having to explain sex to Dale, or the prospect of having to ask Bobby to help him explain it. Don's mind rebels at the thought of his baby brother being old enough to even want to know, let alone the thought of actually talking with him about it. For once, he's glad they can only communicate through letter.
"He's old enough to wonder," Bobby says, when Don screws up his courage two days after receiving the letter and passes on the request. He had half-hoped Bobby would agree that Dale is too young and decline to help, but no such luck. "Weren't you curious about girls at that age?"
Don wasn't, really, but he supposes Bobby is right. Most of his classmates were; Don was just a late bloomer. Still is, if he's honest. But if Dale is developing normally, just on the opposite side of things, Don owes it to him to give him all the information he won't get anywhere else.
Bobby rolls his eyes at Don's grudging agreement. "Well, I'll be as euphemistic as I can. Will that make you feel better?"
It would, if Don trusted Bobby at all to succeed.
"I'll be euphemistic," he says. "You tell it to me straight, and I'll relay it to him when I'm home next. I can't risk putting any of that in a letter, even if it is all euphemisms."
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