Terri works in an Adult Shop which sells all kinds of sex aids, as well as adult videos, books, magazines and so on. She is thirty-nine, but looks about thirty-one, or thirty-two. She is plump but very pretty and friendly.
“Have you been flashed?”
She said, “All the time! The customers, they’re all the time touching themselves, looking at me as they do so. But it doesn’t bother me; it’s part of the job. But one man, he came around behind the counter, undid his fly and pulled his cock out. I said to him, ‘Put it away and don’t do that again.’
“He was a regular customer; he still comes in here and we talk. But he has never done that again.
“One man came in here with a big erection – you could see it through his clothes. I work alone here, and that scared me.
“But yeah, they’re all the time trying to flash me. One man begged me to let him flash me, but I didn’t. Another one wanted to try on a cock ring in front of me, saying he wasn’t sure it would fit. I just tell them all, no. It’s just part of the job, like I said.”
“Sounds like quite a job,” I said. “Have you ever been flashed outside of your work environment?”
“Sure have. First time was when I was ten. It was just after school and I heard some of my friends scream. I raced over and they were in a laneway and a man had just pulled down his trousers and flashed them. I missed it, but I ran after the man, to see what he looked like. I was very upset that I missed it. Afterwards, my friends couldn’t stop laughing about it for ages. When kids are young, it doesn’t hurt them – it’s just a flash.”
“Any other time?”
“Yeah. I was about thirty years old and standing on my balcony when I saw a naked man run past. I was worried there was something wrong with him, but when he jogged back, I realised he was just an exhibitionist.”
“It didn’t bother you?”
“No.”
“Did you report it?”
“No, of course not.”
“Any other instance.”
“Yeah. I was about twenty, or twenty-one and walking home at six in the morning – they were my party days. It was half-light and a car pulled out of the street where I live, and then it pulled back into the street. Anyway when I turned into my street, he was there, parked, and he asked me for directions, said he was lost. So stupid me (!) walked right over to his car to give him directions and when I looked in, I could see a very hard penis. An erect penis. I screamed and called him a dirty bastard and kicked his car.
“I saw him again about a month later. We both recognised each other, but neither of us said anything.”
“So did you report that to the police?”
She laughed. “No. I’d never report something like that. Not unless he hurt me.”
“OK. So you’ve had quite a few…”
“Wait a minute. I haven’t finished…” She was really getting into this. “I have a friend who exposes himself all the time. Just pulls his dick out anywhere and everywhere. Does that count?”
I said, “Sure. A flash is a flash, friend or not. So what would be your reaction now, if you got flashed going home?”
“If it was a secluded place and I was all alone, I might freak out a bit, just worrying what he might do. But the flash itself would not worry me.”
“Do you think exhibitionism should be a criminal offence.”
Terri said, yes, straightaway, but then she thought about it and said, no, they need treatment, and then she thought about it some more and said, it depends on the circumstances. “Generally, no. But if they do it in such a way that I get frightened, then I think it is criminal.”
I told her that about finished the survey and asked her if she had any other comments.
