In my inbox, an email from Jane.
Hi darling R, well, exciting times here in australia, thanks for your email, you gave me courage, the thought of going to a sex-party was a bit strange and i felt embarrassed about even considering the idea, i half expected anybody i shared the secret with to screw up their face in disgust, but thanks to your email and a couple of other responses it came to seem almost a natural thing to do.
Still, thinking about it and actually doing it are two different things. or maybe not. i remember chatting with you in that pub we used to go to in pimlico, you said a new idea in the brain is like a foreign body in an organism, at first the antibodies attack it, but some ideas survive and then they seem natural and unthreatening and you wonder why you ever thought otherwise.
Anyway with me the thinking led quite quickly to accepting the idea in abstract, and that led to accepting the specific physical possibilities, and that led to impatience to get going. by the time A came round to give me a lift, i was quite tense and excited and on a hair-trigger and i was half hoping we’d get on with it right there in the car. i haven’t had an adventure like this, all for me, walking on the wild side, for too many years now, and this felt great.
A was good, he calmed me down on the drive, explained the ropes. don’t get pressured into anything. just stand and watch, if that’s what i want, lots of people get a thrill if people just watch.
He also gave me a mask, a black cat’s face, and suggested i wear it, lots of people do, especially until they get used to how things work, and besides, it makes people feel secure if anybody’s filming. i put it on and R, the transformation was complete, behind the mask i became a different person, glamorous, desirable, wicked, indifferent to the world’s opinion, willing participant in bacchanalia.
We arrived around ten o’clock with the party rocking but everyone fully clothed, quite a few in masks though. Then A told me that the naughty stuff was going on upstairs, he’d take me up any time, maybe i should get a drink first. so i had a gin and tonic and this man came up to me and asked if i’d like to dance.
R, this email is going to have to wait, i’ve just heard the front door slam and that means T’s home, i don’t want him around the place when i tell you what happens next, i’ll hit the send button now. Jxxx.