Chapter 16: Cleaning up

While having some rent-free accommodation is a bonus for me at the moment, the prospect of “cleaning the place up a bit”, as Drax put it, is daunting.

“I need to get to work,” says Drax. “My shift starts in about forty minutes. Will you be alright on your own? Help yourself to food from the larger or fridge. I’ll be back about eight o’clock tonight.”

“I’ll manage, and thanks again for putting me up,” I reply, dropping my bags on the couch. “I’ll start the house cleaning, if you like.”

“Sure, I’ll leave you to work out what to do first.”

Drax changes his clothes and leaves for work. I do a quick survey of the house to determine which jobs need doing, and in what order. It’s the first time I’ve gone into Drax’s bedroom and it is somewhat tidier than the rest of the place. There’s a double bed, and evidence that a woman shares the room on occasion. I berate myself for being nosy and leave the bedroom alone. There is plenty to do elsewhere and several tasks need to be done in sequence. For example, it’s no good me washing the crockery until I’ve created a clean place to put it afterwards. Finally I decide what to do, and I set to work.

It’s back-breaking work, but it at least takes my mind off Michael, and our relationship problems. I buy some lunch from the takeaway down the road rather than raiding Drax’s larder. Some of the food in his larder and fridge have ‘use-by’ dates that are months ago. I sit on the couch eating my lunch looking through Drax’s stack of motorbike magazines. My previous experience helping restore old motorbikes helps me to identify the make and model of most of the bikes. Some bikes are hard to identify because of the women draped over the bikes in very suggestive poses.

I regard myself as heterosexual rather than bi-sexual. However admiring another woman’s semi-naked form affects me to a greater degree than I thought it might do. What triggers a definite arousal is when I unintentionally pick up one of Drax’s porno mags. Instead of putting the magazine back in the stack, I start to flick through the pages. It’s one of his bondage collection, and the sight of restrained naked women causes the plight of my avatar, Annalisa, in the PCT scenario to flood into my mind.

When I exited the PCT scenario, I initially felt that I had been violated and subjected to torments that were alien to me. However, once I was in better control of my emotions, I realised that while I have never experienced the sorts of things Annalisa endured in the scenario, I’m not as horrified as my initial reaction implied. Could I endure something like that in real life? Perhaps. I’ve never been in Annalisa’s situation, but I concede that if I was, then my reaction to what happened to her could well be the same.

I resume cleaning the house. I fix the antiquated vacuum cleaner by the simple expedient of emptying the bag and unclogging the filter. The machine belongs in a museum, but it does the job. I’m unsure whether I should clean Drax’s bedroom, so I leave it alone for now. My work is interrupted by the arrival of a visitor. I hear a motorbike stop outside the house, but before I can answer the door I hear a key turning in the lock.

“Oh! Hello,” says the young woman wearing biker’s leathers as she walks into the house. “You must be Lisa.”