Taking possession is a matter of laying one’s hands on one’s genitals. Similarly, laying one’s hands on a partner’s genitals. In the case of men, the flaccid penis and loose scrotum may be held in the hand and massaged between the fingers and palm. With women, rubbing one’s hand over the labia may suffice, but insertion of a finger or two into the vagina is a more definitive action.
This information is not relayed to either of the two young people lying in a field at the age of thirteen, and so they do not touch after sex, but instead lie together and physically apart. In the space of fifteen minutes they both lose what is commonly referred to as virginity, or purity, or innocence. The fall from grace is sudden. There is no uplift, no rise to glory. There is an acquirement of sensory knowledge. When the two young people dress, they do not watch each other. When they see each other again they have nettles in their hair and clothing. One of them gathers the blanket and they walk together, having finally made contact again at the joining of their hands.
In the field, which is in a rural locality near you, there was once a forest. It was removed in favor of farm land. The young people are unaware of this. They do not consider that the grass on which they briefly fornicated was not always there. The grass, soil, and layers of rock below them contain generations of decayed material. As a measure of sanitation, they wipe the lubrication they produced on the grass. Their material joins the fertile, barren land.
They walk in silence and occasionally smile. All questions of comfort and current state of being are past. They avoided the midday heat, but there is a pleasant warmth which engulfs them. It will take on special meaning for them, as will the land they know of in their memories.