The inevitable has happened, and it has happened after a deceptive string of innocent requests. "What's a Rolls-Royce? What's ESP? What's 'going bananas'?" Leading, leading, leading.
I tell him, but "Where do you hear these words?"
"Oprah."
"Ah."
"What's a call girl?" Okay, not entirely innocent. I tell him, though.
"Where'd you hear that one?"
"The internet."
"Ah."
"What's a detention? What does it mean to have a crush?"
And...
"What's a cock?"
A cock?
"Do you want me to spell it?" He thinks I don't know. It doesn't occur to me until later that it is an option to pretend I don't know.
"No, I know what it is, I just..."
"Is it a bad word?"
"Yes... no. No."
"Then what?"
Silence for a couple of seconds. It's a fifteen-year-old asking, and the class has another teenager, a 45-year-old Catholic priest, and a 39-year-old extremely devout Muslim in it. Can I say 'penis' in front of a Catholic priest and a fasting Muslim woman looking tiredly, but expectantly, at me, shrouded in her headscarf? I'm not entirely sure.
"I'm asking because... I was on the internet and someone said 'Suck my cock.'"
OH.
"I know what suck means! But I don't know what cock means!"
Now it's not just saying 'penis' in front of the aforementioned people, but talking about sucking cock. AWESOME. I shouldn't have given him the opportunity to use it in context.
I tell him, though: "Cock means penis."
"OHHhhhh?" he half-shrieks, then, as class is over, I have four students studiously avoiding my eye as they file out.