"You want to hear a really nasty story?" asked Christina. We all leaned in close. She noted our silence and continued.

"One day, this young teenage girl comes into the hospital. She's a peasant from a village outside the city. I could tell she grew up on a farm because she had a dark tan and tattered clothes. She was maybe only fourteen or fifteen years old.

"She complained of nausea and dizziness. So I put her through a bunch of tests. At first, I thought maybe she was malnourished, but she seems healthy enough. Well, relatively healthy for a poor peasant girl. Then I thought maybe she has some kind of virus or bacteria infection, since villagers aren't known for their hygiene. But she looks okay."

"Maybe she has SARS!" Ben chuckled.

"No…" Christina waved him off impatiently. "This happened several years ago. SARS hadn't gotten around yet."

Ben grabbed his beer and stared at it.

"So anyways," continued Christina, "this girl checks out with every test we gave her. No viral or bacterial infections. There wasn't anything drastically wrong with her that would give her this nausea and dizziness. As I continued asking her questions, I began to get suspicious about her condition."

"Aren't you supposed to ask questions first?" asked Eric.

"Well, of course. I was asking them all along. But some villagers are afraid of doctors and don't say very much. So I just go right into tests while asking questions."

"Oh, okay, that makes sense."

"I ask the little girl about what time of day she has this nausea, how frequent it is, stuff like that. She tells me it's usually in the morning and that she sometimes gets really hungry and eats all kinds of food, but doesn't know why."

"Oh shit," I muttered. "She's pregnant?"

"Yes!" Christina slapped the table. "She's pregnant! So I ask her if she has a boyfriend and she says she doesn't. I ask her if she's ever slept with a boy and she says she hasn't. I ask her if maybe her father or an uncle ever did anything uncomfortable with her. She says they haven't."

"Um, so then how did she get pregnant?" asked Eric.

"That's what I was wondering too. So I keep on asking her questions like this. I tell her it's okay to tell me and that I won't tell her parents if she doesn't want me to. I tell her that she can trust me. She's shy and scared, but also seems really confused about all this. She insists that she's never slept with a boy before.

"Then, and here comes the nasty part, I suddenly realize what happened. Get this: since her family is so poor, all of her siblings sleep in one bed. She has a bunch of brothers. She's the only girl in the family. So all of her brothers sleep in the same bed as her. And—"

"Oh no!" we shouted.

"Right! So apparently her brothers will sometimes 'play around' in bed. She had no idea what sex was or what they were doing. But in their playing, they would essentially have sex with her!"

"Daaaaaamn!" All of us cringed and grimaced. A collective groan shook our table. "That IS nasty!"

"I told you! You wanted to hear it!"

We nodded solemnly. We asked for it. We sat back in our chairs, turned to our beers, and tried to drown the story with alcohol.

Christina took a sip of her beer and regarded the foam. She looked around the table at our dour faces. She took another sip. Then she cleared her throat. "Do you guys want to hear another nasty story?"

We all leaned in close again.

. . .

Do you have any nasty stories?