"You should really grow up, Rachel! You are too old for playing with dolls."
Mother is standing by the piano, her outline framed by unnaturally bright light from the window, contrasting the black piano surfaces.
"I am not playing with dolls!"
"Then what is that you are sitting with?"
I look down, and realize that I actually have a doll in my lap. It is big, with broad arms and legs, and dressed in a police uniform.
"I am not playing! It is real!"
"Dolls are playthings. Grow up, Rachel! You are making a fool of yourself."
"Go away, mother!"
"My pleasure! Let me know when you have grown up."
She somehow vanishes, and I angrily turn my attention to the doll. This is not a kids game! I begin to undress it, aggressively. To my surprise, it is clad in some tight leather outfit beneath the police uniform. I look down, and see that I am wearing a similar outfit myself. And my arms are plastic, too. Around me, our old living room has been replaced by all kinds of plastic stuff in bright colors. I am a doll, in a doll's house.
Right next to me, a yellow rocking horse is standing. I climb onto it, feel a burning sensation in my thighs and buttocks as I touch it, but I begin to ride it anyway. The doll begins to move, it tries to bite me. I bite it back, it tastes sweet but also spicy. The sweet-spicy taste, or feeling, goes down my throat, through my body. The horse is riding me, rocking wilder and wilder. As the taste of the doll reaches the bottom of me, it sets off a sudden jolt in my body. The doll's house disappears around me, and I awake, drowsy and confused in the dusky light of the bedroom.
My thoughts are a mess, still in the no-man's land between dream and reality. Although the room is pretty dark, I can see bright light seeping in at the curtain edges. And the big red numbers on the alarm clock say 11:14. That can't be right? I could never have slept for so long. Besides, I don't have an alarm clock with big red numbers. Who uses those nowadays? Certainly not someone who grew up on smartphones. Am I not in my own bedroom? I guess that would also explain the naked woman sleeping right next to me.
My consciousness is gaining ground. Memories of last night begin to come back. Jennie. The party. The arrest. Handcuffs. The horse. Spanking. Sex. The pieces fit together, but somehow the situation doesn't get any less surreal. I look down over my naked body, lying on its back. Who am I now? What is this body to be? My thoughts are going around in all directions, I try to force them into some kind of systematic order.
-Am I still a college girl majoring in math and computer science? Yes, why not?
-Am I still a frustrated virgin? Not exactly.
-Am I still hetero? No!
-Was I ever hetero? Well, guess not.
-Am I still single? Hmm, difficult, that one. Need more information.
-Can I still be friends with Meg and Claire? Guess so.
-Will I have to explain them about this? Well, maybe..
-Is it going to be awkward? Very likely.
-Should I feel ashamed of myself? Maybe. No. Hell, no!
-Is this whole thing ridiculous? Shut the fuck UP, mother!
I mumble the last bit out loud. Jennie stirs beside me. I reach one hand over her neck, caressing it gently. She awakes, looks at me with a little smile.
"Sleep well, sweetie?"
"Like a stone! And you?"
"Pretty well, I think." She is silent for a moment.
"So, how about it?"
"How about what?"
"About.. us. Last night. The stuff we did. What do you make of it? How.. was it for you?"
"It was.. I guess it was like a sort of homecoming. But kinda weird because.. coming home to a place you never been before."
"You know, this is what I can't get my head around. You are by far the most ready and receptive first-timer I have ever tried. I can't believe you didn't know this thing about yourself before?"
"Well, I guess I just didn't.. think so much about it. I mean, I assumed I would be like everyone else."
"You didn't have any fantasies about girls?"
"Maybe.. or, maybe I would have. But I tended to push erotic fantasies aside. It is difficult to explain.. a part of my upbringing, I guess."
"You from a religious family?"
"No, quite the contrary. My mother is very intelligent, and rational, and serious. She thinks religion is just ridiculous. Actually, a lot of things are ridiculous to her."
"Like what?"
"Like for instance, if she knew about what we did last night, I don't think she would be horrified, or outraged, or anything. She would just be laughing her ass off. Grown-up adults playing games of arrest and spanking!"
"Well, I guess a lot of sexual practices appear silly when you look at them from the outside. But still, they work. Your mother must also have had some kind of.. practices. I mean, what about your father?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean.. wouldn't they have.. done something? You have a father, right?"
"I guess. But not anyone I know of."
"I see. Sorry!"
"It's OK. I won't say I had an unhappy childhood. My mother is cool, and she taught me a lot of things. Like being independent. Believing in myself. My brains. Trusting I could do math and computer science even if all the girls went for other things."
"But?"
"But what?"
"I don't know. I just sense a 'but' somewhere."
"Well.. my mother is really cool, and clever. But she is also kinda.. distant. She would not tell me what to do and what not. Rather ask me some poignant questions, then let me figure it out for myself. Maybe that's a good thing. But she was not the kind of person who would hug you, or touch her goodbyes, or anything like that either. I guess she set me free, but never took me in hand."
"And you miss that?"
"I don't know. I didn't use to think so. It was just, when you.. commanded me last night. It was like being set free in a reverse kind of way. And when you carried me over your shoulder up from the basement.. it just felt so good!"
"So let me get this.. you didn't have erotic fantasies because your mother would think they were.. ridiculous?"
"I think I was just brought up to spend my time and my thoughts in serious and orderly ways. Not silly stuff like spankings! And I assumed that when I found the right guy to be with, something completely natural and sensible would happen."
"What about at college? There must be some nifty lesbian girls there as well?"
"Not girls like you! That was the missing element, I think. And also.. the reality of it. I mean, if someone had suggested last night that we go home and play arrest, and strip-search and bare-bottom spanking of naughty little girl, I would just have laughed. Like my mother. But the arrest was real, I couldn't laugh it off, and it forced me to face my own reactions."
"Considering the magnitude of those reactions, I am still a bit surprised you could keep all this under the lid."
"Well, I guess it was just not part of the world as I knew it. I mean, what about yourself? Have it always been clear as day to you that you were into.. this stuff?"
"More or less. Maybe not always. But you see, in the hood where I grew up, none of the boys were any good, and some of them were outright dangerous. So from a quite early age, I formed this little group of angry grrrls, and we hung out, and we lifted weights, and practiced self defense, and didn't take no shit from anyone. Then we grew up to get horny, and it seemed natural to try and do each other. It didn't work out so well for the others. But it worked very well for me, and so I just went with it."
"OK, being homo is one thing, but what about the dominant-mistress part? Did it come to you just like that?"
"By and by. The lesbian scene is lively. You can try out a lot of stuff if you are up for it. When you try something that works, then you do more of it. Like water finding its way down a mountain."
"Was that then why you entered the Force?"
"No. That was more.. existential. When you gotta do these career decisions, you think about what makes sense, what seems.. worthwhile. I saw a lot of shit on the streets in my old hood, so I guess it made sense to try and clean up some of it."
"But do you get excited when you smack the cuffs on a nifty girl?"
"Well, I am sorry to break this to you, but the vast majority of our arrests are dickhead guys."
"That was not what I asked! Did you get horny when you arrested me?"
"I am not sure what kind of answer you are fishing for?"
"If all else fails, try the truth?"
"Well, the boring truth is that you don't tend to get excited when you are in riot gear. But I did notice you having a really nice ass in those jeans!"
I cannot help smiling, and my cheeks feel a little warm.
"Do you like it?"