'What the Sink Saw' by Rachel Canwell

 I was busy draining when I over heard her. (Which by the way is as unpleasant as it sounds!) 

The girl cried out.

“The sink mummy! It’s looking at us!"

 I forced an air bubble up the pipe, stopped the water at the u-bend, so I could focus on her voice. 

Because it’s a huge moment. After all these years of servitude, suddenly I’m seen!

“Look! The taps, they’re the eyes, the plug hole is the mouth and that funny hole at the back, that’s the nose!"

I waited and then the Mother laughed. Wrapped her daughter in a towel and hurried her away. To the Land-Of-Milk-And-Bedtime-Stories. 

But I saw it. 

That look upon her face, brief, yes I’ll give you that but present just the same. 

She knows the things I’ve witnessed. 

The secrets my porcelain keeps. 

Her wedding ring resting on my cheek, while he stroked her skin. Muted pleasure and furtive glances when they finally opened up the door. 

Then weeks later, on my other cheek, that white plastic wand, whose power holds her retching over me in quiet disbelief. 

That is how it happened. 

How I was condemned by the words of an Innocent to a life time in a skip.