After four months, Virginia was called into the office of the postulant mistress, Sr. Martin de Porres, who pointed out to her that she was neglecting her schoolwork and chores.

"And you don't talk to the other sisters. I don't think you're mature enough yet to be a nun."

Virginia didn't answer.

"Have you ever kissed a boy?"

"No!" Virginia said.

"Don't you think you should try it before you give it up forever?"

Virginia did not answer.

"You have to leave the convent, but go out and meet boys. If you mature enough in the next one to one and a half years, you can come back."

Virginia returned home, cried a while, then found a keypunching job. She was determined to go back to the convent; every month, she went to a discussion group where a group of like-minded women kept their ties to the convent alive.

As she punched tedious data into the computer at work, she realised that the only way she was going to get the maturity Sr. Martin had asked for was to kiss a boy. But, although she dressed stylishly, and walked slowly whenever she passed groups of male co-workers, she did not get so much as one "hello" from them in eight months.

She joined a bowling club and met a 90-year-old man who was very kind. But he did not give her the required kiss either.

Finally, she signed up for a semester at the local state college. Her roommates were Rose and Laura, two girls who had been getting kisses from boys for a whole semester.

They showed Virginia how to change her wardrobe from "working girl" to "college coed" style: stretch pants, bulky mohair sweaters over turtle-neck tops, fishnet stockings, and white lipstick. Then they took her to the College Inn to meet boys.

The bouncer proofed them and let them in just as the band went on break. Virginia followed Rose and Laura past the guys at the bar to the ladies' room.

As they combed their hair, Virginia asked, "How do I get a dance?"

"Just do whatever we do. You'll be fine."

She followed Rose and Laura out to the middle of the dance floor. The two veterans scanned the young men while Virginia thought about her serious acne problem and her short, unfashionable, ex-convent hair.

The band started playing again. Wilson Pickett's music. Terrifying, but thrilling too.

Couples came from the tables and started dancing. As a guy asked Laura to dance, Virginia 's eyes widened. Her skin paled, and her tongue dried out.

Just as she was about to run and hide in the bathroom, a guy barely taller than she was came through for her. He was the same height she was: 5'2". His brown hair was almost shoulder length and combed in bangs so long that they touched his black-rimmed spectacles. It looked as if this freshman, whose name was Rick, had no eyes.

She was afraid to try for another dance partner, but she had no idea what to do with Rick. Desperate, she scanned the room for signs of Rose or Laura, hoping that she could go back to imitating them. They were not in sight.

So she went with the flow. Rick asked if he could buy her a drink; she asked for the mildest drink she could think of, a wine cooler. Rick said, "Let's sit down"; she said, "OK." Rick picked a bench in a dark corner; she was in no position to object.

He got her a second wine cooler.

"He's trying to get me drunk", Virginia thought.

They danced a while. As they sat back down on the hard bench, Rick put his arm around her. His face moved closer to hers. He took her drink and set it on the floor. Virginia wondered if he dared to kiss her in the middle of the crowded bar. She found out. Rick clamped his mouth over hers, pressing her head against the back of the bench.

One of his teeth bit into her lower lip. Virginia moved away from the bite. Rick just pressed tighter against her, so tight, in fact, that she needed to breathe fast to get enough air. Rick, encouraged by her rapid breathing, tried to move his free hand around her waist. Virginia pushed his arm away, alarmed.

"It's getting late," he said.

"10:30?"

"Yeah. They'll shut down pretty soon." Rick walked her home and said goodnight without asking for her number. Later she found out that he had gone right back to the College Inn, where his girlfriend had been waiting.

She sat on the edge of her bed tasting the blood on her lower lip. Her objective had been accomplished. She did not have to waste any more time looking for selfish, inconsiderate men. She could go back to the discussion group a mature woman aware of what she was giving up.

Before the next discussion came another weekend. Virginia sat down to study. Rose and Laura asked why she was not dressing to go out.

"I didn't have a very good time last time," Virginia said.

"You sure looked like you were having a good time." So they had been watching her all along.

Virginia was not about to reveal that she intended to return to the convent. So she went back to the College Inn with them. But this time she stood on the edge of the dance floor.

The first set ended. Since Rose and Laura were nowhere to be seen, Virginia took the default option; she started pushing past the bar to the bathroom.

"What?" a guy's voice said. She turned around.

"You called me, didn't you?" a slender blond with clear blue eyes said.

"I didn't say anything."

"I could have sworn I heard you call my name."

"How would I know your name? I've never seen you before in my life."

"Then it was God. He wanted me to meet you." The guy, Jack, danced with her the rest of the evening, walked her home, and took her number. He called the next day and made a date with her for Sunday. If Rick’s kiss had not done it, this date would surely give her enough maturity to cinch her return to the convent.

Jack took her to a dance in his dorm. Saint-to-be or not, Virginia felt proud to sit next to a man of her own.

Jack leaned over and gave her a light kiss on the nearest cheek. She jumped.

The two of them stood in the lobby of her dorm, just before the 2 a.m. curfew. Jack asked Virginia why she had jumped.

"You took me by surprise," she said. She turned to go inside.

Jack backed her up against the wall and blocked her exit by bracing an arm against the stone wall. "What's wrong? Don't you like me?"

"I like you." She tried to get out the other way.

Jack put up the other arm. "Then what's the problem?"

"I just don't like kissing that much."

Jack smiled. "How many times have you been kissed?"

"Just once, in the College Inn."

"You didn't like it?"

"He bit me on the lip."

"Oh! Then let me show you what a kiss is supposed to be like."

A little curious, realizing that Jack would not make it easy to say "no" anyway, Virginia cooperated.

All Jack did was touch his lips to hers for a moment. But she felt her father, clumsy and shy, tucking her into bed. She remembered summer afternoons on the glider, rocking back and forth, back and forth.

The next day she called the convent and told them that she would not be going to any more discussions, since she no longer intended to go back to the convent.

She had become an adult.