If I can add a bloodstain to all the other stains on the floor, great. Once I’m finished with whatever I had to do on the toilet, I grab it off the floor and shove it back in. I like the smell of old blood that’s gushed out of my pussy. But then, I like the smell of truffles. I’ve heard horror stories about what happens if you don’t always replace your tampon regularly. You get the worst infection—some women even die from toxic shock. Since I’ve been getting my period—that is, for six years—this is how I’ve dealt with my body and my pussy and my bacteria, and my gynecologist hasn’t had any moments of anguish over me.
I used to have a close friend, Irene. I always called her Sirene. It suited her better. And we came up with a cool idea: Whenever we had our period at the same time—which didn’t happen very often, as you can imagine—we would do the following.
Each of us in a stall. Just a divider between us. The usual eight-inch gap between the base of the divider and the floor. We both take out our tampons—back then they were minis with light-turquoise strings—and then, one, two, three, go, we’d pass each other our tampons beneath the divider. And then, when we were finished peeing and dabbing ourselves dry, we each shoved in the other’s tampon. Through our old, stinky blood, we were bound together like Old Shatterhand and Winnetou. Blood sisters.
Sirene’s tampon always looked interesting. Before I stuck it in each time, I would examine it closely. Very different from mine. Who knows what another girl’s used tampon looks like? Okay, okay. Who even wants to know? Besides me. I know.
Recently during one of my exciting trips to a brothel, I learned something else about bleeding and tampons. I go to brothels a lot now to explore the female body. It’s not like I can ask my mother or my friends. Whether they’ll spread open their pussies for me so I can satisfy my thirst for knowledge. Couldn’t bring myself to do that.
Now that I’m eighteen, I can show my ID and get into a brothel. I look way younger, so they always ask to see it. My life has gotten a lot better since I turned eighteen, but also a lot more expensive. First the sterilization. That was nine-hundred euros including the anesthesia. Here in this same hospital. I paid for it myself. Now all the visits to the brothel. I have to earn it all working for the racist at the market.
Older men always take guys to brothels on their eighteenth birthdays so they can have their first hooker-fuck. In the old days it was probably their first fuck of any kind. These days there’s no way that’s the case.
I waited patiently until my eighteenth birthday, but nobody offered to take me there. So I did it all by myself. I found the numbers of brothels in our town, called them up, and, with hope in my voice, asked them whether any of the hookers working there dealt with women. Not many did.
One of the brothels, though, immediately said it had a large selection of hookers open to women. It’s called the Sauna Oasis. The madam said it would be better if I came early in the evening as the male johns often got annoyed at female johns. Or do you call them johnettes? Whatever.
I was okay with that and now I go there often.
I wanted to pick out the right hooker for me in the waiting room. She looked like a black version of me. By that I mean she was built like me. Thin, small breasts, a wide, flat ass, but overall petite. And long, straight hair. But I think her hair was made out of plastic. Island braid extensions. I went over to her. I already knew she was willing to go with women. That didn’t need to be discussed. When I’m picking, the only women in the waiting room are ones there for me, a female client. All those who service only men—maybe on religious grounds?—disappear into a backroom while I’m selecting. I go over to her, as determined as possible. I feel very awkward in this brothel setting. No wonder men always have to get hopelessly drunk before they get up the nerve to go. And then they can’t get it up or can’t remember their expensive fuck afterward. You really feel as if you’re doing something unbelievably taboo, something crazy. I wish I were drunk, too, when I’m there. But I worry I won’t remember afterward what the pussies look like. In which case it would all have been for nothing. That’s why I’m doing this, after all. Studying pussy. So I go sober. I have too much respect for the women there and for the situation. I look forward to a time when I don’t feel so uncomfortable anymore, once I’ve gotten used to it. At the moment I still get a lump in my throat and my heart races. Only after a few minutes with one of the women do I start to chill out. Back to that first time with the girl who looks like me. I ask her what her name is.
“Milena.”
I tell her my name.
She asks me in front of all the other hookers whether I have my period. What made her think that? I think I know. She smelled it through my pants. I had a school friend from Poland whose nose was so sensitive she could tell from her seat who in the class was having their period. She fascinated me. She was like a dog. I got a real kick out of her skill. Almost every day I would ask her who was bleeding. She didn’t like knowing and was disgusted by bleeding girls. She didn’t want to be near them. Unfortunately, she moved back to Poland. Girls who for stupid reasons of preserving their virginity used pads were easier for her to smell. Because they carried their blood around all day on a platter. With girls who trapped their blood inside with devirginizing tampons, she had to work a little harder. But she’d sniff them out. And now they’ve sniffed me out here.
I answer her with a yes. She says she doesn’t want to fuck me because of AIDS. Great. A few of the hookers giggle.
Milena smiles and says she has an idea. “Come with me. Have you ever heard of sponges?”
“The things you wash up with?”
She nods yes. Things are looking up, I think.
What does she have in mind? I follow her into a room. Number four. Is this her room? Or do they share rooms? I’ll ask everything in the half hour I have ahead of me. For fifty euros. I can’t decide what would be more enjoyable: to fuck a hooker or to ask her about all the things men have done with her or that she has done with them. Actually, each possibility turns me on as much as the other. But both at the same time—fucking and quizzing her—would be the best of all.
Naked, as she already is, she walks in her high-heeled shoes over to a cabinet and pulls out a big cardboard box. I have a chance to take a long look at her from behind. I love her ass. When she goes down on me, I’m going to bore my finger deep into her ass the whole time. What she’s holding in her hands is a family-pack of something. She takes one out—it’s something I’ve never seen before. A round piece of foam packed in clear plastic. Looks like a fortune cookie, only soft.
“This is a sponge. When we have our periods we’re not allowed to work because of the risk of infection. And if we use normal tampons, the clients can feel them with their cocks. Tampons are too hard. We shove these sponges as far inside our pussies as we can and it holds the blood out of the way for a while. The sponges are so soft no cock in the world is going to notice it touching its tip. It feels just like your cunt—even to a finger. You can try it. Lie down. I’ll push it in. Then I’ll go down on you, even though you have your period.”
Milena swims in the red river and drinks the water. And she says “cunt,” too. I wouldn’t dare.
I’ve asked in all the drugstores and pharmacies. You can’t get sponges as a normal person. Maybe you need some kind of proof of prostitution or something. I could definitely use sponges. Because not every guy I fuck likes to dip into the red river. In those cases I could hide the blood the good old hooker way. Otherwise I miss out on a fuck here or there when I have to confess to blood-averse boys I’ve got my period. Sometimes Helen is out of luck.
By the way, another thing that really needs to stop is the way my period always sneaks up on me by surprise.
I am constantly surprised by it. It was true before I was on the pill, and it’s still true now that I’m on the pill—obviously no longer to prevent pregnancy but to prevent pimples. My period never comes regularly or when it’s supposed to. Never the way it’s described on the