The feelings of attraction and repulsion swirled through me. Hate, too. Hating her for abandoning me and hating myself for being there.
But, there I was, in a seedy East California topless bar in the middle of a weekday, just me, the bartender, and this washed-up, saggy-breasted, overly-made-up, thickly-eyelashed, half-stoned dancer. Her name was Mona, and she was my mother.
I found out about her existence upon my father's death a year ago. I had always been told she died in child-birth, but in settled his affairs, I found pictures, cancelled checks, and an address.
Now, at 24, full of self-loathing and self-pity, I had journeyed here, and seeing her for the first time, I wondered why I had come.
Soon after Dad died, I began having dreams about her. Not pleasant dreams, sexual ones. In them, she came on to me, seduced me, and at the end I was frustrated for not being able to come, and she had mocked me, saying I wasn't a man.
I would awaken angry and scared in a pool of sweat, still aroused. My real sexual relationships began to suffer. I couldn't focus on my partner, always envisioning Mona. I would wind up alone, in the bathroom, bringing myself to completion.
So, I decided to confront my fears and anger, and took the trip. And I was both sorry and excited that I had.
"What's your name, Honey," Mona asked as she slid around the pole, trying so hard to look sexy at 42 when most dancers are half her age.
"Paul" I replied raspily, through dry lips as I gulped my beer.
"I'm Mona. They say I moan a lot! I don't know, do you think I'm a Moaner, Baby?" She slinked her way off the small platform when she saw me peel a bill off my wad, and moved her body close to me, and her eyes flashed when she saw it was a five. Singles were probably more common and she knew she had a mark.
I tried to be cool, and replied, "I bet you can moan real fine," as I held the bill up and she smiled and worked her body to within inches of mine, giving me her scent and allowing me to slip the bill in her g-string.
My fingers seemed to burn as they brushed her flesh, sliding the bill in snugly, and she looked down at me through sleepy eyes. "I bet you can make a woman moan real good, right, Baby?"
Acting the stud she expected, I said, "I don't get any complaints, Mona."
She bent, her big breasts dangling before me, and whispered, "Maybe, you'd like a private dance?"
"I don't know, what does that get me?"