Warning: contains mild scat
===
The night before Jake and I were going to watch Liverpool play Leeds, the tumble drier decided to break down. I had, of course, left the bulk of the laundry we needed until the night before our trip and so we had a large pile of wet washing waiting to be dried. As an engineer by trade, doing impromptu repairs on our appliances is fairly commonplace for me, but the timing of this particular breakdown couldn't have been more inconvenient.
As I got to work getting the back off the machine and seeing if I could locate the source of the problem, I asked Jake if he would mind finding my rucksack and bunging a few essentials into it like my shampoo, shaving foam and some shower gel.
"Where is it?" he'd asked impatiently, seemingly oblivious to the large pile of wet washing I was trying to deal with in time for the drive next morning.
"Where's what?" I asked with my head peering into the rotary mechanism which was refusing to budge.
"Where's your rucksack?"
"In the bottom of my wardrobe, I think. Or maybe under my bed."
My son had stomped off, muttering that he was in the middle of doing something else, leaving me to try and figure out what was jamming the drum.
A few minutes later he returned and, before I had chance to ask him to pass me a torch, he announced solemnly that he'd "found something weird".
"Found what?" I asked him, impatient to get on with what was starting to look like it might be quite an involved job.
"I dunno," he replied. "I was going to just put it back where I found it, but I thought you'd want to see it. Maybe it was something mum left behind."
That was unlikely: she'd walked out on us well over a decade ago and had meticulously stripped the house of all her belongings as well as some of mine.
"I hope you haven't been poking around in my stuff, Jake," I said, pulling myself out of the back of the drier. "I don't rummage through your things."
"It wasn't like that!" he snapped. "I only looked where you told me to. And this thing... well... it was under your bed, underneath the folded up exercise bike."
Christ β how many years had that been there, gathering dust? I'd probably used it twice; perhaps once even.
I stood up and wiped the oil off my hands, smiling to try and take more conciliatory approach. "Of course. I'm sorry."
What on earth could it be? A discarded tube of KY jelly? Surely he'd be able to figure out what that had been used for. After all, he went through plenty of his own.
As I washed my hands at the kitchen sink, Jake said, "I probably shouldn't have said anything. It's like a dressmaker's doll or something. Only inflatable."
A dressmaker's doll? Linda had never shown any aptitude in repairing clothes, never mind making them.
After drying my hands, I followed him upstairs.
"I just thought you'd want to see it," Jake said as I reached the top.
As soon as I saw it, sprawled out on my bed, I knew exactly what it was.
It was made from transparent plastic and was clearly human in shape. Inside it, between the legs, was a large, commodious tube, the end of which was bulbous to collect a discharge of liquid.
"Oh," I said flatly. "That."
I'd forgotten it had even existed. If I'd have given it even the briefest thought in the last few years, I'd have put it out with the rubbish.
"What is it?" Jake asked.
I couldn't believe that at nineteen years old he could be so naive. Wasn't it obvious what it was?
I considered making something up β maybe that it had kept his mum company in bed when I'd had to stay away from home from time to time β but everything I could think of on the spot sounded too implausible.
In any case, before I had chance to formulate something convincing, he answered his own question.
"What's that tube thing inside it?" he asked. "It isn't a... oh God! It is, isn't it? It's a blow-up doll!"
He gaped at me, his mouth turning from surprise into amusement.
"Jesus, dad! I'm sorry!" he stammered, suppressing laughter that showed he was anything but. "I wouldn't have said anything if I'd have known. I just thought it was like a mannequin's dummy or something."
There was no point denying it. Any story I tried to fob him off with now would sound even lamer.
"Your mum and I got it not long after we married, Jake," I told him. "It hasn't been used in years."
He kept giggling but insisted on his contrition. "Seriously, Dad, I'm really sorry. I should have just pretended I didn't see it. I honestly didn't realise what it was."
I shrugged. "Well, now that you have, you might as well know why it's been there all these years. It's not like I was hiding it β I'd just forgotten it even existed."
"Did you used to actually use the thing for sex?"
I sat down on the bed and picked up the doll. I could still smell the strong whiff of plastic from it, just as I had when it had been new.
"It became clear, just after I married your mum," I began to explain, "that my sexual needs were far greater than hers."
"You don't need to tell me this," Jake cut in, still smirking.
"No, I want to," I replied. "I've always believed in being open with you about sexual stuff and, as you found this, I think it's important that you know why I bought it."
He nodded and I went on: "I like to have sex pretty much every night..."