Opportunity: A narrative from Ms. Gimply's collection
My room mate, Eileen, was away for the weekend with her boyfriend. Of course, I was jealous. I always told her that I didn't know how she managed to attract and keep a man since she was a high level para and completely dependent on her wheelchair. She isn't that good looking, either, but I don't tell her that. Anyway, she always seems to have a guy around.
Now I have a bit better shape than she does and probably am a bit prettier. I don't need a wheelchair, either, as I can get around on crutches. Of course my Spina Bifida gives me a shuffling gait that is not sexy to look at. I have to wear a diaper for security when I am out for any length of time. Either that, or I have to stop drinking liquid hours before I go anywhere unprotected. No wonder I can't get a guy.
Eileen laughs at me and says I have no idea what some guys will put up with or even like. She tells me that my crotch probably works better than hers anyway. (Eileen can be very crude.) She laughs that she can't get an orgasm anywhere below her boobs and that I should be able to get off in the right place even if I make a mess. She says it's a matter of attitude and being open to opportunities that present themselves.
In the first place, she says, a girl should always carry condoms and a tube of KY jelly. Condoms will repel both diseases and babies. Girls like us should be careful of both of those things. The jelly will make up for imperfections in the workings of the crotch. (I told you she was crude.) It can also be used in all sort of creative games. (She didn't say what those games might be.)
I admired Eileen's frankness and daring. I don't know she had shed her inhibitions or if she ever had any in the first place. I had grown up sheltered from all consideration of sexuality. My mother had dutifully discussed menstruation when the time came but never anything else. I guess the unspoken assumption was that the disabled daughter would necessarily be tragically and eternally chaste.
My first experience of sex was with a gimpy dork from the special school. (I'm not complaining about the gimp part, but the dork issue was a serious drawback.) We had schemed for weeks to find a place and time. Finally he bribed his room mates to stay away during study time and I sneaked to the boys wing of the dorm. The kissing was fun but then he started to grope under my panties and protective pads. He began to groan. I couldn't think of anything to groan about but I went along with it. I felt his finger inside me. It felt wonderful and terrible all at the same time. I almost told him to stop.
His pants were down and he started to undress me too. He ejaculated all over my leg before he got very far. Then he began to cry and say he was sorry and that I was wonderful. I was wet and sticky and half undressed. I could only think of escape. I rearranged myself as well as I could and sneaked out without getting caught.
I wondered if I was really still a virgin since only his finger had been inside me. I didn't know anyone to ask. I wish I had known Eileen in those days. I did ask her years later when I told her about the dork. She almost fell out of her chair laughing.
Eventually, I figured out from books and magazines how things worked. By trial and error I learned to masturbate. Some of the time, unless I had planned ahead and avoided liquid, I peed into my hand when my climax came. It felt good but I was glad that I was alone when it happened. My further experience with boys was limited and I continued to attract dorks. It never got better than the first time.
Anyway, that's the way things stood when Eileen was away for the weekend. I decided that I would take the bull by the horns and get condoms and jelly and look for the opportunities that she insisted were everywhere. As I left the building, I greeted the guy who was working on a landscaping project in front. He was tall and dark. His muscles rippled every time he lifted the shovel he was wielding. He was a hunk. (Eileen would say that he is do-able.) He smiled and said "Hi." and kept at his work.
Walgreen's was a few blocks away. As I entered, I wondered how I was going to buy the things I wanted without being noticed. I had scouted out the condoms and KY jelly many times before but I didn't want just to head directly there as if that was where I wanted to go. Instead, I picked up some aspirin and a bag of hard candy. I slowly circled the target area. I picked up a package of tampons. Then I put them back because I didn't want the cashier to notice how much attention I was paying to my crotch. (Now I am starting to sound like Eileen.) I arrived at my destination and quickly picked up the things I had decided on long before.
I put my purchases down at the cash register. The cashier didn't even look up as she rang them up. They must be trained to be discrete like that. I wondered if she would joke about it with the other employees after I left. In any case, the deed was done. I put my things into my shoulder bag and I escaped out the door.
The weather had taken a turn. The sky was dark and the wind was gusting. I hurried as fast as my crutches would carry me but still had a block to go when the rain started to come in sheets. I was instantly soaked and dripped the rest of the way home. The landscape guy had retreated to his truck to wait out the storm. The sudden rain had soaked the newly turned soil and washed a thick sheet of mud across the sidewalk. I stepped carefully on the mud but my feet were immediately out from under me. I hit the ground and slid about three feet. I said a word I had learned from Eileen. I tried to position my crutches to get up and slipped again. Tears came.
I looked up to see the landscape hunk sprinting in my direction. "Are you alright?" he asked.
"Yes," I told him through the tears, "But I'm stranded like a whale on the beach." He reached down to lift me and he slipped, too, and was beside me on the sidewalk. I started to laugh. He managed to right himself and then lift me to standing position. He supported me with one arm and retrieved my bag and crutches with the other. Now two of us were covered with mud. And by now we were both laughing.
He accompanied me to the door and said "Will you be alright now?"
"Yes. Thanks a lot." I said. "I have a washer and dryer at my place. Come in and we'll take care of your clothes." I screwed up my courage and added "I have condoms, too." I hoped my voice was not too shaky.
He smiled. "I need to clean up this mess first. It should only take a few minutes now that the rain has stopped." I told him the apartment number.
I made my way in a daze. I thought of Eileen and how pleased she would be with me. I also thought about how mad the building super was going to be when he found the trail of mud in the hallway and elevator. He already resented having the accessible apartments in the building. He thought they were extra work.
Once in the door, I shed my wet and muddy clothes by the washer. Naked in the bathroom, I discarded the dreaded diaper into the container and sat down to empty as much as I could.
I headed to my bedroom and put the packet of condoms and the tube of jelly on the night table. I pulled a robe from my closet and put it on. After a minute I took it off again. I think that's what Eileen would have done. I combed my hair back and tied it and headed naked back to the bathroom just in case. As I passed the thermostat I turned it up a few degrees.
I wondered if my guy would come. Even if he didn't I would have a story for Eileen. The buzzer sounded and I pushed the button to let him in. I unlocked my door and then I panicked. What should I do next? I was naked as the day I was born and a strange man was coming. I fled to the washing machine then heard his knock at the door. "Come in," I called "it's open" When I heard the door open and close I said "Lock the door behind you, please, and come in here to the washer."