Doreen and her mother Heartie (fictitious names) were seated in their car. Heartie had just started the car and was about to drive off to take Doreen to school when the child realised that she had forgotten her water bottle; so Heartie turned off the car in order to allow her to go fetch it.

While she was gone, Heartie out of sheer curiosity opened her schoolbag; and she couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw one of the pockets stuffed with condoms.

“Where you got these?” she asked the child on her return.

“Teacher gave them to me. She gave some to all of us.”

Not believing her ears now, she asked, ”Who?”

“What she wants you to do with them?”

“She says they’re to prevent us from catching AIDS.”

“How?”

“I don’t know. A boy in my class told me that people use them when they’re having sex; and he promised to show me how to use them today.”

“Lord, have mercy on my soul!” Heartie exclaimed in dismay. ”So it’s that you’re going to school for? Well, it’s what this world coming to? You know it’s a wrong thing to do?”

“It can’t be wrong, Mommy, otherwise Teacher wouldn’t be urging us to use them; and as for those people on TV, you don’t hear how they keep saying over and over, ”Use a condom?”

“I, your mother, Eliza, Emily Jones better known as Heartie, say that sex is for married people, and if other people would only wait until then there wouldn’t be any use for all those condoms.”

“So what you’re saying then, Mommy?”

“It’s not what I’m saying. It’s what is the fact. And the fact is that unmarried people who indulge in sex commit fornication, which is a sin. The Bible says so,”

“What must I do with the condoms then?”

“Give them to me. I’m taking them straight back to your teacher; and I’m going to talk my mind to her. As for that boy who promised to teach you, tell him I say that if he doesn’t want me to wring his neck, he must leave you alone, and spend his time in learning his lessons. You hear me?”

“Yes, Mommy.”