Outside her son's house, Irene alighted the taxi she had caught at the station fifteen minutes earlier. Robbie came out to greet her as she paid the driver. It was the first time they had seen each other since he left for university two months previously and Irene was feeling quite nervous. They had spoken on the phone often but always as if they were a normal mother and son as opposed to the totally depraved pervert and exploited son, that she had come to regard herself as.
The time before he left seemed an age away. From the night of her birthday to the day of his departure they had made love every day and to her it was definitely making love not just sex. Their relationship had been totally open with Robbie and herself talking openly about what they liked and wanted in a way that she doubted any other mother and son had ever spoken. Irene was pretty certain that most sons would not have told their mothers that they 'loved the smell of your hairy cunt' or that they wanted to 'come on your tits'. Equally she was sure that most sons had not been instructed to 'fuck me harder' or to 'bite my nipples'. It had been difficult to say goodbye but she knew despite his protestations that what they had was only temporary and that he would build a new life for himself at university with new friends and girls his own age.
"Hello gorgeous," Robbie wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight, "I missed you." Irene was a little surprised and quickly scanned around her to make sure nobody was watching although she quickly realised that maybe she was being a little paranoid. "How's my favourite girl?" Robbie asked, releasing her from his grip.
"I'm fine, how are you?"
"Horny!" Irene scanned the street once more.
"Robbie, you mustn't talk like that, not here, not now that you're ... You know."
"Now that I'm what? I am horny. I miss you so much."
"But you're here now, surely you've..."
"Surely I've what?"
"Moved on. Got over what we... you know."
"No chance, I can't wait to get my hand in your knickers."
Irene felt very uncomfortable, in her head she had expected them to revert back to a traditional mother son relationship, in her heart she was overjoyed that he was carrying on where they had left off. "Well all that will have to wait, we need to sort out your credit cards and get them stopped."
"Good news. The pub called five minutes ago, the cleaner found my wallet under one of the seats, I must have dropped it on the floor and it got kicked to the back. It's all there, money, cards, everything."
"Oh? That is good. Good that they have such an honest cleaner too. We must reward them."
"Yes, I'll do that."
"So I've had a bit of a wasted journey then."
"No you haven't. We get to see each other, I missed you so much. Haven't you missed me?"
"Well of course I have, you're my son." Irene looked about her once more not wanting to be in the street talking about emotions and the like, especially this street which she was pretty sure she would not walk down at night. The Victorian houses had certainly seen better days, the hedges were uncared for, bins and litter lined the street, some windows were boarded up and there were mangy looking dogs wandering around. Robbie saw her examining the street.
"It's got character hasn't it? The red light district is a couple of roads over." He waved his arm behind him. "Well I say district it's just the one street but nearly every house has a working girl in it." He saw the look on his mother's face, "Or so I'm told. Not that I'd ... ever."
"Can I see your house?"
"You certainly may." Robbie picked up her small suitcase and waved his arm towards the door, Irene led the way. "You'll have to forgive the mess, we generally clean up on Wednesday." Irene picked her way through various empty cans, bottles and pizza boxes.
"But today is only Friday." She said.
"Yes?"
She let it go, but could not believe this much mess was the result of two days.
"The other guys are all at lectures till later this afternoon so we have the place to ourselves." He showed her into the kitchen, it was no tidier than the hallway. "We haven't washed up for a while. I was going to tidy up a bit, it's Ben's birthday, he's one of my housemates and we were going to have a bit of a sesh."
"Sesh?"
"A session, a few drinks, well a lot of drinks. Anyway we tend to hang in here and it does tend to get a bit messy.
"So I see." She said, surveying the piles of pans and plates.
"My room is a lot cleaner." He assured her. "Would you like to see?" He motioned to the stairway behind her, keen to get his mother away from what he was now realising to be a complete garbage collection room. Being away from your mother and living with four other guys did tend to make your standards a little lower.
"Yes, I'd like to see where you spend your time."
"Well we tend to hang out in the kitchen or the pub but I do my work up here and sleep of course." He said leading the way up the stairs.
"And girls too?" She had been dying to ask but he had always steered the telephone conversations away from the subject.
