HUMOROUS | THIS HAPPENED TO ME | SHORT STORY

Oh no! I am in the Men’s Toilet!

Inspired by pockett-dessert

Our mountaineer friend organised a day trip to a picturesque village, a three-hour drive from Istanbul. A small bus was hired, some food for lunch was packed, and hiking boots were laced on our feet. We were a group of friends, all thrilled to have a trip together for the first time and to get out of Istanbul’s hustle and bustle and head for the famous hiking spot.

While hiking I felt nature’s healing hand over us. We walked the path, talked about all sorts of things, breathed the fresh air, and noticed the birds, trees, rocks, and shapes of nature. To take something with us to remember, we took a lot of photographs.

After finishing our walk, to have some refreshments, we entered a village cafe, which was under the shade of a plane tree. The folk at the cafe didn’t mind us, they treated us as if we were one of them. Though, they didn’t realise how hungry we were to embrace the natural surroundings around us.

Our next stop was at a local restaurant to have fish and rakı — aniseed-based Turkish alcohol. Our taste buds would long memorise this trip as well.

Like every amazing thing, there comes an end, we had to go back to our busy lives. Hitting the road with melancholic smiles, we played some music and even danced in the small bus.

I was a little high from all that I experienced during the day but my smile was abruptly removed from my face. I was suffering.

You know that feeling!

You don’t have any signal of needing to wee or anything and all of a sudden you need to go to the bathroom urgently. It was one of those situations. My bladder was pressuring me to get out!

I approached the driver and asked if we could stop at the next petrol station for the wee-wee. He informed me without hesitation that he could however there was none for a while.

Waiting wasn’t only disappointing but painful. You are aware of every second and count them like minutes. The torture continued for around one and a half hours. Finally, the bus went off of the motorway. The lights of the petrol station were like heaven.

I threw myself out of the bus first into the deserted vast station. I rushed into the spotless building and followed the signs at the end of the corridor. While I was inside one of the cubicles, enjoying the moment that I was so looking forward to, my male friends from the same bus started coming into the restroom.

Then I realised I hadn’t checked the signs at all. I’d walked to the bathrooms and opened the right door and entered.

As pockett-dessert put it,

As the saying goes, Men are LEFT because Women are always RIGHT. 😉

I never thought the right restroom would be for men.

I didn’t come out of the cubicle because I understood there were some urinals right on the opposite side of the cubicles, which I was blinded to by my needs and hadn’t noticed at all. Men were happily chatting as they were peeing. There was no need for any unnecessary scandalous scenes.

From the men-bathroom conversations, I only remember what I thought, ‘Aha this is what men talk about when they were together!’ I wish I noted down memories about their chatter somewhere.

At some point, one of them said, “Oh nobody came out of this cubicle! Who is there? Is it a girl?” Embarrassing! I must have turned red.

I waited for everyone to leave the toilet, then I left the cubicle. It was absurd. Tiring! I felt really stupid and almost ruined the beautiful day.

Years later, reading pockett’s story I recalled the moment as comedy :)

As pockett was inspired by Srini and I by her, it seems this is turning into a chain to tell each other how we found ourselves in the ‘other’ restroom :)

I didn’t struggle with the signs in my case though. Only, I was blinded to see the signs! What signs could possibly direct you better than nature’s call!

Thank you for reading.

You can read Pockett-dessert’s piece via this link.

And Srini’s from this one.

You may be interested in reading this one too.

Have you heard of my #wheniwasgrowingup stories? You can get into that through this piece.

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