Relax with Sherrie time

An embarrassing toilet incident reminds Sherrie of her debut stage performance...

Hello readers,

You may remember me telling you about my first appearance on stage at the age of four. A quick reminder of that embarrassing moment…

It was a room full with at least 150 people. There were 20 of us from the local dance school and this was my debut. I’d never been in front of an audience before until this night. My mother was standing with me, and the last thing she said as I was pushed onto the stage by all the other girls was, ‘You did go beforehand didn’t you?’ Then she vanished in a flurry of sequins and tule.

I followed the older girls onto the enormous stage, as it then seemed to me. I could see how many people were looking at me and the fear shot through my body. No I didn’t ‘go beforehand’, and suddenly my bladder released warm water and a little pool formed. The laughter and applause was too much and I fled! Thankfully that never happened to me again, but the embarrassment returned the other day to give me a little reminder of my stage debut. I haven’t travelled to London on the train a lot since the pandemic, not really wanting to go very far. Last week I thought I should shake myself and get on with it.

Sitting on the train I was feeling happy, out and about, back on one of my usual trips to London.

I got up to go to the loo, which to be

‘The door suddenly slid open and in the mirror appeared a very nicelooking young man’

honest I hate on trains with those funny sliding doors. Anyway, needs must. I pressed the button, the door slid open but I didn’t read what it said on the door as I wasn’t wearing my glasses. I got in the cubicle, pressed the red button and saw ‘Toilet door locked’ so I was safe. Facing the door is a mirror and after about 15 seconds, the door suddenly slid open and in the mirror appeared a very nice-looking young man. We were both in shock. I was frozen to the spot on the loo, he dutifully put his hand over his eyes, stepped back and thankfully the door closed.

Just as I pulled everything up the door opened again. The young man still with his hand over his eyes said, “I’m the train manager, Madam, this toilet is faulty. It does say on the door.” He turned away, took his hand down and fled down the corridor, probably scarred for life. The only consolation this time was that there was only one person in the audience – not 150!