DAY 1, IN THE LIVING ROOM
"Dad, can I ask you a question?" I asked.
I'd been working up the nerve for days now, and, finally, the time was right. If I didn't do it now, I'd never do it. It was do or die. We were relaxed on the living room couch, he was in a good mood, there was no TV or computer blasting, and our phones were in the other room. No better time than the present. Go for it! Just do it.
He nodded. "Sure," he shrugged.
"It's kind of personal," I said. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to."
He returned the slice of pizza that he was eating to his plate and put the plate onto the coffee table. He looked at me. "Well, that caught my attention," he said, his eyes meeting mine. "There are no secrets between us, Baby Girl. Ask what you want."
A long moment went by, with him waiting for me to speak. I swallowed my last hesitation away and came out with it. "Well, I was wondering-- how often do you masturbate?"
You know how, in the movies, when somebody is shocked, their jaw drops and their eyes open wide and their eyebrows fly up? He did that. Just like in the movies. He does that sometimes. It's really cute. Sometimes I say appalling things just to see that expression, but that wasn't my goal this time. I had other goals.
I waited for him to recover, for his face to go back to something resembling normal, then he laughed. "What brings that topic up?"
I was ready for the question. I'd rehearsed my response. "Well, one of the other nurses at work said that her husband masturbates every day. In the morning, when he's in the bathroom. You know--brush your teeth, use the toilet, take a shower. And he masturbates. He says it part of getting ready for the day."
"And she tells you this?" Dad asked. "I'm glad she's not my wife, discussing that with other people."
"No, she says he doesn't care. He says it's just normal stuff, not a big deal."
It took Dad a bit of time to digest that. Then he had more questions. He was trying not to answer, wasn't he? "What does she think of that? Isn't he supposed to be having sex with her?"
"I asked her that too," I said, trying to be as reassuring as possible. "She doesn't mind. She says they have sex at bedtime the normal amount. She's ok with it."
Dad was quiet now. He hadn't answered, so I prodded him a bit. "So I was wondering," I said, "whether all men do that, or if he's doing something different. Do you do that?"
He was thinking. I could see the wheels turning in his head as he figured out what to do. On the one hand, this was his daughter he was talking to. On the other hand, he'd always told me that sex is nothing to be embarrassed about and I should feel free to ask whatever I wanted to know. Sometimes I feel sorry for him, a single man trying to raise a daughter, ever since Mom decided to leave us and go to France to "find her true self."
He found a way to avoid the question. "That reminds me," he said. "Do you remember the time you asked me how it was possible for two men to have sex?"
I didn't remember, but it was pretty funny. I could imagine myself doing that. "What did you say?" I asked.
"What could I say? I told you the truth. You thought I was kidding. That was a long time ago."
"I hope so," I said, laughing. "I don't remember it though."
He was buying time to figure out what to say, wasn't he? But I wasn't going to let him change the subject. So I just calmly waited for him to answer my question. "She says he just does it into the toilet. Like point-and-shoot. She thinks most men do that."
Eventually, he decided to be a good father. "I don't do it like that," he said. "Not like that."
He still hadn't answered the question. I wasn't going to let him off the hook. "So how often do you do it?" I asked.
Again, he hesitated, and eventually he decided that he'd tell me. He probably figured that the sooner he answered the question, the sooner I'd drop the topic. "I don't know. Maybe four or five times a week. Most days."
I wasn't done tormenting him. "In the morning, like he does it? In the bathroom?"
Now, here's a little secret, just between you, Dear Reader, and me. I already knew that he masturbated at bedtime and how often he did it. I'd been checking his wastebasket for soggy tissues and keeping track. Also, I know where he keeps his bottle of lube, in the nightstand. Every so often, I find an excuse to go into his bedroom in the morning, to see what tissues are littered around the bed. And sometimes he leaves his browser open on his laptop, so I can go into his history and see what kind of porn he watches. But he didn't know that.
He answered. "No, normally at bedtime." Then he looked at me with a puzzled face. "So, what's this about?"
I didn't want to answer that question, so I ignored it. "How come I don't hear you?" I asked. "Don't you make noise when you do it?" That wasn't exactly true, that I didn't hear, but it seemed like the best thing to say.
"I try to be quiet," he said.
I could tell he was really hoping I'd shut up. But I had one more thing to say. That was the whole purpose of the conversation. "You don't have to be quiet," I said. "It won't bother me if I hear you." I needed to clarify a bit. "I mean, you don't have a girlfriend. It's no secret that you have to do it."
He laughed again. "I'll keep that in mind," he said. "Any other incredibly personal questions you'd like to ask? You want to know about my bowel movements too? I'll be happy to keep you posted."
"That's disgusting," I said, giggling.
I wasn't done yet. I had hoped he would ask me about my habits, but he didn't. I guess part of the Daddy Code of Ethics is that you don't ask your daughter about her masturbation. So I tried a different approach.
"Can you hear me when I do it?" I asked.