Return to the Blue Lagoon dialogue
Lilli: Mother, why do you wear your clothes when you bathe?
Mother: Because it's proper!
Lilli: Why don't Richard and I wear clothes when we bathe?
Mother: Oh, I gave up on you two long ago; I put your clothes on, and you just take them off!
Lilli: I wish I looked like Richard down there.
Mother: Why?!
Lilli: Because he can aim it when he goes "pss!"
Richard: I can hit a mango leaf dead-center!
Mother: (sighs) *ah*
Lilli: Why does he have one he can aim and we don't?
Mother: Well, God in His infinite wisdom decided...well, nature...gave us different parts! Ah; well, you see a female has a...
Richard: ...A cowry-shell!
Mother: What?
Richard: Lilli looks like a cowry-shell down there.
Lilli: So that's what you call mine—a cowry-shell! And we call Richard's a...
Mother: (embarrassed) No, no, no, no, no, no...um, never mind; I think this has gone a little far. I should have explained certain of life's facts to you years ago.
Lilli: Explain certain of life's facts now!
Mother: ...No, I need to think about it first. I'll explain it to you—after your spelling lesson tonight.
Mother: Come on, let's rinse—let's rinse off; alright? Everybody.
Lilli: Tonight?
Richard: Why do people get married?
Mother: It was God's commandment, that when a man and woman love each other, that they take vows...vows are like promises. They make promises to each other in the eyes of God for the whole world to witness, and that's called the marriage ceremony, and here is a ceremony that your father used to say when he performed marriages—at the mission...[shows photo to children]
Richard: What about the life facts?
Mother: When a Lilli becomes a woman, and a Richard becomes a man...
Lilli: When's that?
Mother: Well, it's different for everyone, but you'll know when it happens to you.
Lilli: How?
Mother: Well, Lilli, your body will become rounder, you'll grow breasts like mine, and every month you'll bleed a bit from the opening between your legs.
Lilli: I don't wanna bleed!
Mother: It only lasts a few days, and it's a great blessing, because it means you can have a baby!
Richard: Do I have to bleed?
Mother: No—but your body will change too; your voice will grow deeper, and you'll grow hair on your face, and I think you'd look very handsome with a beard; unless of course, you want to scrape it off.
Lilli: I want the baby now!
Mother: You can't—you're not ready yet, and even when you are, you need the man to make the baby that will grow inside you.
Lilli: Inside me?
Mother: Yes—there's a special place inside a woman, where the baby stays nice and warm and safe until it's ready to be born into the world.
Richard: How does the baby get in there?
Mother: ...Well, after they're married, the man and woman lie very...very close together, and...
Richard: I know; it's like the Iguanas, Lilli—you know when they get so close you can't tell where one begins and the other ends?
Lilli: Uh huh!
Richard: That's it!
Lilli: That's it?!
Richard: Yes, because the Iguanas always have the baby soon after.
Lilli: That's it? That's it, mother?
Mother: Well, that's most of it...
Lilli: That's what I've been waiting to hear all day?
Mother: Umm...