The Shed
As I flung open the old wooden door, still a bit loose on the lower hinge, two things struck me instantly. Firstly the shed was much smaller than I remembered it - not surprising as I hadn't been in there since childhood. And second - absolutely nothing had changed.
The smell got me first, old and dusty and oh so familiar, evoking strange memories of a lonely childhood spent here, just dreaming. The same garden implements in the corner - the spade and fork my Dad had been so proud of, how he'd loved his garden. The wretched old 'curtain' draped over the window, in truth nothing more than a shirt no longer deemed acceptable by Mum, though I'm sure Dad would have worn it until the day he died given the choice.
And then there was the table. The old table of sturdy oak which he used as a bench.
"Is that it?" opined my daughter critically, finally joining me. "I thought it would be bigger. And what is that grubby old rag in the window?"
I couldn't blame her, I imagine there are quite a few things an 18 year old would rather be doing than emptying the property of her recently departed grandparents.
"Believe me Poppy, however underwhelmed you are right now is nothing compared to my own disappointment."
"You don't look it - you're almost crying."
And she was right. It had finally got to me that they'd gone. But it was the table that had tipped me over...
"Dad, who is GW?"
"I've no idea, why?"
She pointed at some initials carved into the table top, mine and GW's enclosed in a rough approximation of a heart with an arrow passing through it.
"Ah. Ah yes, that's Glenda Williams. She lived next door. I don't think you ever met her, they had moved out by the time you first visited here."
"Did you looove her, Daddy?" she teased.
I stared at the carving, I remembered doing it. How proud I was of that pen-knife. I pretended to look out of the part of the window that wasn't covered, my thoughts racing back to those days. What I wouldn't give to have them again.
"Dad?" she said, suddenly concerned.
"Glenda was 2 years older than me, and quite attractive. Often when I was kicking a ball around on the lawn she would pop her head over the fence. She had a word which always thrilled me. She would simply say: 'Play?'"
"Play? What does that mean?"
"It was our code, it meant she was going to take me to the shed and... and"
"and you fucked her."
"NO, how could you think that? We didn't even know how, it was different then, no internet, no porn nothing."
"So what, you talked about your favourite Beatle or something?"
"She used to wear her school dress, white with blue swirly patterns that the girls wore in the summer. It came to mid-thigh. And white knee length socks with black sandals. Her hair was blonde like yours, but not as nice.
"She would lean against the table and just kind of stand there willing me to do whatever I wanted. I used to kneel in front of her and I can still remember the wonderful aroma that came from her dress when I buried my face into it, right in her private area."
"Her private area? Who are you, Mary Poppins? OK sorry, go on."
Poppy plonked herself on the edge of the table and let her feet dangle.
"Well of course that was the point of no return, I would place my hands on the outside of her thighs and then slide them up her legs, pulling up the hem of her dress at the same time. Now the scent was even stronger, I mean I don't know how nature managed it but someone should bottle that smell.
"So I would plunge my face into her white knickers - always white, and just move my nose up and down like a dog. I really didn't know what I was doing, but her knickers always seemed soaked, almost like she'd wet herself."
Poppy was listening intently, like she used to when I read Harry Potter to her at bed-time.
"And she just stood there and let you do that?"
"Yes. And so I'd venture to the next stage. Behind that damp white fabric lay the answer to...well who knows, but I had to find out. I eased her panties down to her knees and just stared. I mean, it was unbelievable, so beautiful I had to have it in my mouth. I sucked and kissed and generally sloshed around with no clue, but somehow knowing this was where I wanted to spend my life. And then all of a sudden she kind of leaked. Just everything became wet and she was gasping for breath, clinging to the table and bucking her hips forward into my mouth. Then just as suddenly it was over."
"Wow Daddy. You were a horny boy and no mistake. Did you um...you know?"