Bec Book 1: Lost in the Maze

Bec

Book 1: Lost in the Maze

by barbar

 

Bec is a young teen with a slightly weird outlook on life. Join her as she struggles to cope with the problems life throws at her.

 

1: When is a door not a door …?

 

My parents have this thing about giving us “lessons.” Oh sure, if we do something wrong they do the usual things like grounding us or making us do meaningless chores or making us sit on the time-out chair, stuff like that. Sometimes, though, they go all out and do things that are kind of … extreme.  I’ll give you an example.

 

This happened about a month ago – about a month before my thirteenth birthday. My sister, Tara, is fourteen, Dan is twenty and little Angie is three. Tara and I mostly get along by leaving each other alone. Sometimes we’re nice to each other and sometimes we fight like it’s going out of fashion, but mostly we leave each other alone.  I’m Rebecca by the way, but most people call me Bec.

 

I should mention that my family and I are from England. We moved out here a few years ago. I’m learning to speak in American and to write in American. Sometimes I get confused because the same words are spelled differently but I think I’m getting better at that. I guess you don’t really need to know that to understand this story but it’s something that influences a lot of things in my life.

 

This story starts on a Saturday morning. Mum and Dad were sleeping in, Tara had gone out early to swimming practice, so I felt safe to wander into her room to grab one of her music CDs.  I didn’t know, but swimming was canceled because of a problem with the chemicals in the pool. I had a couple of CDs in my hand and was trying to pick which one I wanted to listen to when Tara charged into the room … busted!! She took one look at me and started yelling at me about always coming into her room and taking her stuff.  Then I noticed one of my tops hanging out of her laundry basket. I figured attack is the best sort of defense, so I yelled back at her about how she was always stealing my clothes and how that was my favorite and how I wanted to wear it the next day but now I couldn’t and so on (not completely true, but hey, it was a fight and all’s fair …). Well, she grabbed me and pushed me out of her room, still yelling, and slammed the door, and screamed, “and stay out of my room.”

 

So I stood in the corridor screaming at her through the closed door for a bit, then I stomped down to my room and slammed my door shut behind me.  Seconds later I heard Tara’s door slam again, then mine burst open and she threw the top at me and yelled, “Have your skanky top back, I hope I stretched it.” Then she stormed over to my desk and grabbed a pile of CDs off it, some were mine and a couple were hers but she said they were hers and she was taking them back and  … well you get the picture … it was a pretty normal fight for us with lots of screaming and slamming doors.

 

This went on for, like, maybe half an hour or so and it ended with both of us charging together into The Parents’ room, both talking over the top of each other, trying to persuade Mum and Dad to do something to make the other sister stay out of our room and leave our stuff alone. Mum and Dad were still in bed and cuddling under the covers, no way could they have slept through all the noise and they pretty much knew what the fight was about because half the neighborhood probably heard about it.  But they ignored us and kept whispering to each other, so we kept yelling about how we wanted locks on our doors so we could keep stuff private.

 

Around about then, they rolled away from each other and sat up in bed to look at us. The looks on their faces kind of shut us up real quick as we started to realize that we made a mistake asking them to fix our fight. They were going to fix it their way and it wasn’t going to be pleasant.  

 

Finally it was quiet and Dad said in a real calm voice, “Do you realize that you both charged into our room without knocking?  You’re each complaining about your sister doing the same thing that you just did to us.”

 

We got sent to our rooms and told to stay there until further notice.  I sat on my bed, wondering what was going to happen, when I heard Dad calling for Dan. Soon I could hear weird noises from the rest of the house. This went on for a while. Then my door opened. Dad walked in with Dan behind him. Dad totally ignored me, but Dan kind of looked at me strangely.  Dan held the door and Dad went to the hinges with a nail and a hammer and knocked the little pin thing out, then the two of them picked up my door and carried it out of the room.

 

I sat there staring out into the corridor. I was stunned!  I didn’t even know you could do that to doors. I always figured they were kind of permanent, but Dad had just taken away my door.

 

A bit later, Mum walked past. She looked in through my empty doorway and told me to follow her. We collected Tara and went into the kitchen for a family meeting. I followed along in a daze. There wasn’t a single door left in the house, only the outside doors were still there. Even the bathroom door was missing. Mum had stuck paper labels on the walls outside our rooms with numbers on them. The Parents’ room was “1,” Dan’s room was “2,” Tara’s room was “3,” mine was “4” and Angie’s was “5.”

 

We sat down around the kitchen table. Dad and Dan were already there. Mum held Angie on her knee. They explained to us that privacy was a privilege not a right and that the doors wouldn’t go back until we had learned that.  Tara complained about not being able to get changed and how, with the bathroom door missing, people would see each other going to the toilet and how that was gross. They shrugged and said we would manage somehow. Then they went on to say that technically they owned everything in the house including the stuff that happened to be kept in rooms 3 and 4 … that’s what they said … rooms 3 and 4. Our rooms weren’t our rooms anymore… and our stuff wasn’t ours anymore. I tried to object saying that we’d paid for some of the things in there, clothes and CDs and things. They said we’d bought those things using their money, given to us as an allowance.  

 

Mum then said, “Speaking of which ...” and stood up and left the room. She came back a minute later with two purses, Tara’s and mine. She tipped all the money in them onto the table … which wasn’t much … we aren’t that old, and pushed it across to Dad, saying, “We want our money back!” Tara and I were silent. What could we say?

 

Dad looked at the little pile of bills and loose change. He picked up a couple of bills and handed them to Tara. “The two of you have ruined our morning,” he said. “You can both walk down to the shops. Get your mum and me some nice little present then come straight back. I want any change back too. This money isn’t for you!”

 

So off we went. Once we were outside, I guess we both had a little rant at each other about how they couldn’t do this to us, and how it was probably child abuse and such like, but eventually we kind of wound down and walked in silence. I guess we were both thinking back over the argument that started all this. I know I was.

 

We bought some chocolates for Mum and Dad and headed back. On the way back, we started fighting about whose fault it was that got us into this mess. Eventually, Tara turned around and stomped off to sit on a bench and I went on home on my own with the chocolates and the change.

 

As I came into the house, I could hear that Dad had one of Tara’s CDs playing really loudly on the big stereo system in the living room. I wouldn’t have minded so much except that it was a really old one that neither of us wanted to listen to anymore.  I walked into the living room and Dad was dancing around to the music and being silly. He was clearly in a good mood and it made me mad because I sure wasn’t. Then I noticed that there was a huge lineup of CDs on the shelf. Dad had taken all the CDs out of Tara’s room and my room and stacked them all out here. I gritted my teeth and tried to smile. I handed Dad the change and the chocolates.  

 

He took the chocolates with a big smile and said “Why thank you, Bec. What a lovely present.” He then grabbed my hands and tried to make me dance to the crappy music. I broke away as quickly as I could and headed off to my room.

 

I walked through the doorway and stopped cold.  My baby sister Angie was sitting on my bed in the middle of a huge pile of my clothes. She had my favorite skirt wrapped around her like a blanket and was playing with my clothes. She was grabbing handfuls of shorts and t-shirts and panties and throwing them into the air. I was about to scream at her when I noticed Mum sitting at my computer watching me with a grin on her face. On the computer, I could see she had opened up a log of my last chatting session with my friends. I guess there wasn’t anything really embarrassing there, my friends and I were all twelve after all, but they were things I thought of as private, not really for a mother to read.

 

She just stared at me straight in the eyes and said, “These are not your things, Bec!” I’d gone beyond furious and was now in complete shock. Mum stood up, saying, “Watch Angie playing please? Don’t let her stick anything in her nose.”

 

She then kissed me on the cheek and left the room.  That’s when I noticed, Mum had let Angie play with one of my lipsticks. It was smeared on her face and hands … and all over my clothes, including my favorite skirt.  I glared at Angie and said really quietly, “Mum is evil!!!!!” Angie hid her face behind my good jeans.  Then I slid down to sit on the floor and started to cry.

 

That night, we had dinner together. Mum and Dad chatted on as if nothing was unusual. Dan was pretty quiet. He joined in occasionally but he didn’t say much. Tara and I were silent – kind of keeping our heads down. After dinner, Dan went out and we all watched television.

 

When it was bedtime, Mum looked at me with a stern face and said, “It’s time for bed. Go to Room 3. When you’re there, find some pyjamas to wear and go to bed. You will sleep in Room 3 tonight.”  

 

Both of us started complaining at once. That was Tara’s room! Dad cut through our complaints by telling Tara that she would be sleeping in Room 4 tonight, my room. We gave up and left the room.

 

We glared at each other a bit, then went into the bedrooms. No doors, so we could walk right in. I went to the drawers and found one of Tara’s t-shirt nighties to wear. I realized I needed to change panties too. I hesitated. I’d worn Tara’s clothes before but never her underwear. I figured I had no choice so I picked a plain pair from her underwear drawer, staring in jealousy for a moment at the little pile of bras – I wasn’t up to wearing a bra. I then wondered how I was going to get changed without being able to close the door. I put the nightie on over the top and wriggled around to take my other things off and change my panties. Finally I got into bed and lay there. This was really weird, lying in Tara’s bed. There was light spilling into the room from the corridor, so I lay there looking around at the posters and things on her wall. Then I thought about Tara lying in my bed. I wondered what she was thinking about my room.

 

Mum came to say goodnight. I started crying and said I hated this. She hugged me and kissed me and told me she loved me. She tried to tell me everything would be okay. I didn’t believe her. Then she left to see Tara and Dad came from talking to Tara to wish me goodnight. I tried to hug Dad and told him I was sorry, over and over again, and could we please put things back the way they were. But he gently pushed me away and said I needed to learn something and that it was important and this was a way of learning it. Eventually I calmed down a bit.

 

Then Daddy looked me in the eye and said, “Bec, I love you. Trust me. I’m not doing this to hurt you. Nothing that’s happened today has hurt you. You’re upset because it’s strange and I understand that. I want you to figure out what’s important about this. I don’t think you’ve done that yet. Don’t worry about that, you’re a smart girl, you’ll figure it out. Try to get some sleep. Let tomorrow take care of itself. Good night.”

 

Then he kissed me and left the room. They turned out the light in the corridor, but there was still some light from other rooms and I could hear the TV. I lay there for a long time. Eventually I went to sleep.

 

I woke up in a strange bed, in a strange room. For a moment I panicked. Then the events of the day before came rushing back. I was in Tara’s room. I’d slept in Tara’s bed. I could hear Angie playing with some blocks in her room. I got out of bed in my nightie, I mean Tara’s nightie, and put a robe on. Then I wandered down to check on Angie. She was having fun with some blocks.  She smiled happily at me then went back to building a tower with an intent expression on her face. She was fine.

 

I needed to go to the toilet, so I went there next. Of course there was no door on the bathroom so I walked right in and I got the shock of my life. I came face to face with Mum sitting on the toilet. “Eeeeew!” I exclaimed. I guess I couldn’t see anything because of Mum’s clothes, but no twelve year old girl wants to see anyone sitting on the toilet, especially her mother.

 

Mum just looked at me and said good morning. “I didn’t expect to see you up quite so early, yesterday was a big day.”

 

I stood there like a lump of clay, thinking maybe I should run away – from the bathroom I mean. Though running away from home was also an option. Mum kept talking as if this was the most normal thing in the world.

 

“You should take a shower. Go back to the room you slept in and find some clothes to wear for today.” I opened my mouth to object, but Mum cut me off. “Don’t argue. You girls often wear each other's clothes, with or without permission. This really isn’t any different.” Just then Mum farted into the toilet and I burst out giggling. She laughed too then said “shoo,” so I ran away, trying to stifle my giggles.

 

I went back to Tara’s room and picked through her wardrobe. I knew all her clothes and had worn quite a few things, Mum was right about that. Because we were pretty much the same size, Tara’s clothes would all fit me. Some of them would be a bit loose around the chest though. I wondered briefly about wearing one of her bras and stuffing it with tissues so that I would fill out the clothes better but decided not to.  It was Sunday and I had no plans so I grabbed some sweat pants and a top that I liked and headed back to the bathroom. Mum was gone by then, thank goodness, so I went into the bathroom.  I put the fresh clothes on the bench and reached up to take off the nightie. Then I froze. There was no door. I would have to completely undress to take a shower. If anyone saw me nude I would just die of embarrassment, especially Dan or Dad. What could I do? I stood there shaking.

 

Tara walked into the bathroom, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. I squeaked and then shrieked “Get out.”  

 

Tara stood there half awake and then gave a kind of half-smile. “It’s okay, I’m not looking. Mum sent me here. She wants me to stand in the door while you shower and make sure Dan and Dad don’t come in. Then you have to do the same thing while I shower.”  

 

She groaned and propped herself in the doorway. She was wearing a pair of my flannel pyjamas and had obviously just been dragged out of bed. She had her back to me.

 

I said “thanks” in a quiet voice and turned around. I quickly skimmed out of my nightclothes and jumped into the shower. I finished quickly, then dried and dressed in a hurry.  All the time, Tara stayed propped in the doorway with her back to me … I think she might have gone back to sleep standing up!! When I was finished, I nudged Tara and told her it was her turn. Then I stood in the doorway, crossed my arms, and glared down the empty corridor, daring Dan or Dad to show up so I could tell them to get lost. I could hear Tara getting undressed and showering behind me. I guess it felt kind of cool, protecting my sister from embarrassment like that.  After a short time, Tara was finished. She hadn’t brought clothes with her so she put on a bathrobe and we headed back to our rooms together.  

 

I looked at Tara and said, “I think you’re supposed to wear something of mine today.”

 

She kind of looked at me with this blank look. She really still wasn’t awake yet. Then she nodded and went on to my room. After a second of hesitation, I followed her and stood in the doorway. I didn’t say anything as she fished out a pair of my jeans and a t-shirt. One of her bras was on the bed – I figured that was a present from Mum. She couldn’t exactly wear one of mine. I didn’t have any.

 

I said, “I’ll stand in the door while you get changed,” and turned my back. She said thanks and I listened to the sounds of her getting dressed behind me. As I stood there, Dad came down the corridor. I told Dad to wait there for a sec. He said okay and leaned against the wall. I guess he figured out why I was standing in the doorway like that. He asked how I’d slept and I said, “okay I guess.”

 

It wasn’t long until Tara came up behind me and said, “all done.” The three of us then headed down the corridor to get breakfast.

 

Dan hadn’t appeared yet, Dad said he got in late last night and was probably sleeping in. We chatted about our plans for the day. It felt kind of normal, which was weird. I had some homework to do which was on the computer in “my” room. I wondered what to do about it, but finally I just asked if I could use my computer to finish off my homework. Mum and Dad looked at each other then Dad said I could use the computer in Room 4 to do my homework so that his investment in an education wouldn’t be wasted!! I guess I kind of sighed because Dad grinned at me.  

 

After breakfast, I went to do my homework but something made me walk the other way and I went to Dan’s room, at the other end of the house. There was no door of course, so I stood in the doorway and could see Dan lying there in bed, fast asleep. I walked quietly in and sat down on his computer chair. It swiveled so I could turn it around and look at Dan. I’d never really seen Dan sleeping before. I mean I had, but I’d never really looked at him while he was sleeping. He looked so peaceful just lying there, his face all relaxed and gentle. There was the faintest of snoring sounds, maybe more heavy relaxed breathing than snoring. I sat and looked at him for a while. The blankets had slipped down and exposed his shoulders and the top of his chest. He wasn’t wearing any shirt. I took a second to admire the muscles in his shoulders. I guess I’m at the age where girls start to notice that men can be nice to look at.

 

Dan’s breathing changed a bit. His eyes blinked and slowly opened. I could see his eyes slowly focus as he realized I was sitting near him, watching him. He smiled gently. “Good morning, kiddo,” he said.

 

“Hey there sleepyhead,” I responded. I reached forward and pulled the blanket up over his shoulders. Then I leaned down and kissed him on his cheek. When I did that, I suddenly figured out why I’d come into his room. With all the weirdness going on, Dan was still Dan. He was my big brother. With my love/hate relationship with Tara, and my parents being, well, The Parents, I’d always been able to talk to Dan about my problems and he always seemed to love hearing about things I’d done. He was like my rock, and I’d been kind of swept away in the raging torrent of The Parents’ weirdness, so I’d come here to cling on to my rock so I wouldn’t drown.  

 

“I love you Dan,” I whispered in his ear. Then I turned and walked out of his room so that he could wake up and get up in peace. I went to “Room 4” to do my homework feeling better than I had in ages.

 

The rest of the day was pretty normal. Tara and I learned to go to the toilet with a long shirt hanging down so no one would see stuff they shouldn’t. We learned to cough or talk loudly if we went near the bathroom so if someone was there, they would call out, and so we could avoid being grossed out. I got a phone call from my friend Liz and we chatted for a while. I said I was being punished and told her I’d explain about it at school. Tara spent time playing with Angie and I joined in for a while. Dan spent most of the day in his room; he had a lot of study to do. Mum and Dad did housework and stuff in the garden. We girls had chores to do like dishwashing and folding clothes. Mum had washed my favorite skirt and somehow gotten the lipstick stains out of it. Tara and I talked and then we carefully put our clean clothes away in the opposite rooms, so I had some of my clothes in “her” room and vice versa. We figured that way, whichever room we got to sleep in that night, we’d have some of our own clothes to wear. We were proud of ourselves for coming up with that little plan.

 

We got that one wrong. That night at bedtime, Dad said to us “You’re both sleeping in room 1 tonight. Go there and find something to sleep in, then get into bed. We’ll be along in a moment to wish you good night. They’d just told us to sleep together in their room. They looked at the surprise on our faces then burst out laughing. Dan was there; he was grinning too. Tara and I looked at each other and I could see why they were laughing. The expression on Tara’s face was priceless. Mine was probably the same. I guess it was kind of funny. Soon we joined in the laughter. Tara and I both hugged Dan goodnight, then headed off to The Parents’ room.

 

We stood inside the door and looked at each other doubtfully for a second. They’d told us to find something to sleep in so we decided to do that. We went to the cupboards and I found one of Mum’s flannel nighties, it was a bit too big for me but it would do. I didn’t dare wear some of the other stuff she had in her sleepwear drawer. Tara found one of Dad’s old work shirts. It buttoned up the front and came down nearly to her knees. Her hands disappeared inside the sleeves until I helped her roll the sleeves up, both of us giggling away like crazy. Then we hugged and both got into bed. Later I realized that we’d gotten changed in front of each other without getting all embarrassed. That was a first. We’d shared beds before, especially when camping or traveling, so that wasn’t really new to us. I guess we’d even both slept in here with Mum from time to time when Dad was away on business. What was new was sleeping in this bed without Mum.

 

Our parents came in together and kissed us both good night. Then they grabbed some nightwear for themselves and left. We talked for a bit. This was the best we’d got on together for ages and I think we both enjoyed the chance to be together and be nice to each other. I was on Mum’s side of the bed and the faint smell of her perfume on the pillow wrapped around me like the warmest blanket in the world.

 

I woke up again later. Tara was spooned up behind me with her arms wrapped around me. It was still dark. I tried to move my head but I couldn’t and I realized Tara was lying on my hair. I lay there, feeling Tara’s warm breath against the back of my neck. I felt warm and snug, safe and secure. Her arms around me protected me from everything. Well, nearly everything. Everything but her, that is.

 

I tried to puzzle out my feelings for Tara. I had all these questions going around inside my brain. How could I go from hating her to feeling like this, so quickly? How could she make me feel so bad and so good at the same time? I lay there for ages trying to figure things out. My brain was all confused. The best answer it could come up with was that I loved my sister, and that I always had. Even in the worst of our fights, I’d never stopped loving her.

 

The next time I woke up, it was to the sound of giggling. It was still really early. For once Tara had woken up before me, probably because she hadn’t spent half the night awake, trying to sort out her mixed-up feelings. I woke up pretty quick when I realized what she was giggling about. Tara had gotten out of bed and had put on one of Dad’s suits. She still had his work shirt on that she’d slept in and had added a tie and jacket and pants. Everything was way too big of course, so the effect was hysterical.

 

Soon I was joining in as we tried on several of our parents’ outfits. I ended up in Dad’s dinner suit, complete with bow tie. I had the belt on his trousers pulled to the tightest notch, and his pants still kept falling down on me. The pants legs were all crumpled around my calves so that my feet could poke out and my hands were completely invisible in the sleeves of the jacket. My feet positively swam in Dad’s enormous shoes.

 

Tara had on one of Mum’s fancy dresses, which was only a bit baggy in places. To fill it out in the chest, Tara had put on one of Mum’s bras and we’d stuffed it full of tissues. Mum’s boobs are a bit bigger than Tara’s. She was also wearing a pair of Mum’s high heels which were obviously also a bit large. She’d put on some bright lipstick and eye makeup too. To complete the effect, I used eyebrow liner to draw a mustache on my face. As you might guess, we did all this through gales of giggles.  

 

Finally, we walked hand in hand down to “our rooms” to look for our parents. Tara was holding one of my hands and my other hand was holding my trousers up. Tara had to keep using her free hand to adjust her stuffed boobs. It was hysterical. By this time it was nearly normal “wake up” time. Dad was sleeping in Tara’s bed with his legs poking out over the end. Amazingly he was still asleep after all our noise. We poked him in the chest and sang out “wakey-wakey!” He jerked awake and sat up, looking around through bleary eyes until he saw us. We said, “Come on, Dad, get up. We’re ready for school.”

 

He stared at us then he roared with laughter.  Just then we heard Mum in the doorway laughing as well. She was holding Angie and had come to see what the fuss was.  Dad bounded out of bed in his t-shirt and boxers and grabbed us both in a big hug. Mum came and joined in so we had a sort of great big group hug with everyone laughing. Angie didn’t understand why we were laughing but she enjoyed the big hug. Dad doesn’t hug us like that very often so it was a nice change.  

 

Finally Mum said, “I think you two should go check if Dan is awake, he won’t want to miss seeing you two like this, then you both need to get some breakfast.”

 

So Tara and I held hands and went across to Dan’s room at the other end of the house. When we were near his room, we yelled “Knock, knock” because there was no door to knock on, and we didn’t want to burst in on him if he was changing.

 

We heard Dan say “come in,” so walked around the corner into his room. Dan was awake and sitting up in his bed in his boxers. He was pulling a t-shirt on as we came into the room. He gaped when he saw us, then he laughed out loud. We stood in the doorway and posed, like in fashion magazines.

 

“So that’s what all the noise was about,” he said.

 

He came over to us and we all hugged together. I laid my head against Dan’s big chest and sighed. It was my second group hug in ten minutes and I was feeling very loved and appreciated. I think Tara was too, because her eyes were shining brightly and she leaned into me and gave me a quick kiss on the side of the mouth.

 

We then both reached up onto our toes and tried to shower Dan’s face with little sisterly kisses. Dan laughed and fended us off, then said, “Okay, enough, I need to get dressed and you need to get changed … unless you intend to go to school like that??”

 

We winked at him and didn’t answer his question as we turned and left his room. Tara was wiggling her butt at him as she walked out of the room. I thought that was bit cheeky … get it? Cheeky? … as in the cheeks of her butt?  ... Sigh … some people don’t get my sense of humor.  

 

We went straight to breakfast, but Mum looked at us and said, “You better not try to eat in those clothes or you’ll make a mess. Go and find something suitable to wear to school and get changed.”  

 

We turned and headed towards our own rooms. Very soon we were ducking between our two rooms helping each other find a good outfit to wear to school. Both of us ended wearing a mixture of our own and the other’s clothes. It was huge fun, heaps more than dressing for school normally is.

 

School was amazingly normal, after everything that had happened over the weekend. The other kids think I’m weird but that’s got nothing to do with having parents who take my bedroom door away. I get teased for being English and having a weird accent. It’s not too bad and I can usually ignore it. Everyone gets teased for something, I guess. One day I should tease them for having weird American accents. I wish I was brave enough to do that.

 

It was nice to spend time with Liz and we chatted away whenever we could. I told her what was going on at home and her eyes were really wide. She shook her head in disbelief.

  

That night, we were each assigned to our “own” rooms and by Tuesday when we were assigned to the “other sister’s room” to sleep in, I realized I was relaxed and comfortable in our new weird lifestyle. The CD collection was out in the living room and we both grabbed whatever we wanted to listen to. Our things and clothes were now totally mixed between the two rooms and we stopped trying to keep track of who belonged to what. The shower and toilet situation was sorted by the two of us working together as a team, and the older folks having showers after we went to bed. Angie loved it because she got to wander everywhere and she wasn’t shut out of places like she was used to.

 

Tara and I hadn’t fought for four straight days, which had happened before, but we were actually nice and caring to each other for four straight days, which was probably a new record.  Tara and I got used to changing in front of each other which we hadn’t done since we were little and we made sure to give Mum and Dad space when we knew they were changing. Dan bought us a new CD that we liked and added it to the collection in the living room. Mum and Dad spent a lot of time laughing about the way things were. As far as we could tell, they had no intention of going back to the way things used to be.

 

While I was getting used to the situation, I didn’t want it to stay like this forever. I wanted a place where I could sometimes go in and shut the door and be left alone. Not to mention the bathroom stuff. I wanted our parents to set things back straight, but I didn’t know how to get them to do that. On Wednesday after school, I talked to Tara about it. She agreed with me, but couldn’t figure out what to do either. Pretty soon we decided we both needed to see Dan, so we went to find him in his room. He was studying when we arrived but he seemed pretty happy to talk to us.

 

I started things off, “Dan, we don’t understand something. We’ve stopped fighting. In fact, we’ve been more friendly with each other than ever. Why is everything still all screwy? Why haven’t our parents put things back to normal?”

 

He looked at us both carefully for a moment. “That’s true. You have been really nice to each other lately.  As for the rest, they’re probably waiting for you to do something.”

 

“But what?”

 

“I think they want you to figure that out for yourselves.”

 

“Can’t you help us?”

 

“Sure I’ll help you, but you have to start helping yourselves a bit too.”

 

I still wasn’t sure how to start. “Can you give us a clue?”

 

“One thing you need to remember is that when The Parents do stuff like this, they don’t come out and say what they want you to learn, but most of what they say will be a hint. Think about what they said and about what they didn’t say. You’ll get it.”  

 

“They said they own everything in the house,” blurted out Tara. “They said nothing is ours.”

 

Dan smiled, “Now you’re on the right track. They said that, but they don’t really believe it.”  

 

“They lied to us?”

 

“Of course they did! What does that tell you?”

 

I thought for a moment, “They lied to us because they wanted to confuse us, to mess with our heads. They didn’t want us thinking straight about what was going on.”

 

“Clever girl,” said Dan with a smile.

 

“They didn’t take anything away from us,” chimed in Tara. “They just told us the things weren’t ours anymore.  Then they messed your things up and put the CDs in the living room where anyone could use them.”

 

We were silent for a while, looking at each other’s faces. I think both of us were kind of reviewing the conversations we’d had and the things that had happened over the last few days. I found myself looking at the earrings that Tara was wearing. They were mine, a present from Aunty Penny last Christmas. But they looked really good on her. They kind of went with the shape of her face and the color of her hair. Suddenly I knew what to do. The question was, how to get Dan to help us do it.

 

I gestured at his open doorway, “Why did you let them take your door too? You weren’t fighting.”

 

“They weren’t going to. I told them they had to.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Partly because I hate it when you two fight all the time. I wanted to show both of you that I agreed with them about this, one hundred percent. I said I didn’t want to be part of the room swapping games though, and they respected that.”

 

“You said partly?”

 

“That’s right!” He smiled at us.

 

I looked at Tara and tried to tell her with my eyes to back me up. She nodded at me, she’d figured something out too. I stood up. “Dan,” I said as firmly as I could, “we’re going to put the doors back, but they’re kind of heavy. Will you help us?” He smiled really big.  He didn’t say anything. He jumped up and we went together to the garage to get the first door.

 

When Mum and Dad got home later all the doors were back where they should be and Tara and I were sitting at the table. I was decorating a big sign that said “Tara’s Room” and Tara was decorating a similar sign for my room. The CDs were still in the living room but we’d put all our clothes back in our own rooms. Dan was sitting in the corner pretending to read a book – he didn’t want to miss this.

 

Our parents looked around a bit then came and sat down at the table with us. They didn’t look mad, just intrigued. That was a relief. Dad picked up a handful of nuts from the bowl in the center of the table and started munching on them. Mum watched us decorating the signs for a bit then said, “You two have been busy.”

 

I shrugged and said, “You told us the doors wouldn’t go back up ’til we’d learned what you wanted us to learn. Well, we figured out what you wanted us to learn so we put the doors back up.”  

 

Dad leaned back a bit and tried to keep a straight face but I could see the corners of his mouth going up. Mum looked at us both carefully, “So what have you learned?”

 

They’d spent all their time making cryptic comments at us, so I decided to give them some of their own medicine. “We learned that Dan told you to take down his door too.”

 

Mum and Dad’s eyebrows shot right up to the top of their faces. It was so comical it was hard not to laugh. It was totally not the answer they were expecting. I think they wanted us to talk about privacy and all that. But in my mind, my answer was way better than that. I heard this muffled snorting sound coming from Dan.  He was trying not to laugh at their surprised looks.

 

Dad didn’t say anything but he’d stopped munching on the nuts. Mum looked at each of us in turn then looked me straight in the eye and said with a really stern voice, “You’d better explain that, young lady.”

 

I was confident that I was right so I stared her straight back. I was working out in my head what to say then Tara butted in. “Dan told you to take his door as well because he knows that he’s part of this family and he knows that we’re all in this together. It didn’t make sense to take down all the doors in the house except his.”

 

We hadn’t talked about this so Tara had obviously figured things out the same as I had.  

 

Dad finally chimed in asking, “Did Dan tell you all this?”

 

“Nah,” I responded putting some disgust into my voice. “He said he did it because he wanted us to stop fighting.”  

 

“Ahhhh!” said Dad, rolling his eyes up and making like everything had suddenly made sense to him.  Dad and Dan exchanged grins, Dan was enjoying this way too much.

 

Mum wasn’t finished though. “So what now?” she wanted to know.

 

“Well,” I said as casually as I could, “tonight I will go to MY room and put on MY pyjamas and sleep in MY bed, and Tara will go to HER room and put on HER pyjamas and sleep in HER bed.”  

 

“Ahhhh!” said Mum, totally imitating Dad from a few seconds ago, as if we’d explained everything.  

 

Dad reached across the table and grabbed her hand and said, “I told you they would work it out, my two girls are both very smart little cookies.”

 

They both looked at us with big smiles. Dan silently pumped his arms in the air, congratulating us for sorting things out in a good way.

 

“Wait a minute,” said Tara, “I don’t want to sleep in my room tonight.” She glared at me. “You can’t make me.”

 

I gaped at her, so much for solidarity. Then I saw a glint in her eye, in the middle of all this tension, she was teasing me!  

 

“You can sleep out here on the floor for all I care,” I said crossly, but I winked at her to let her know I wasn’t cross.

 

“I won’t,” she declared. “I’m going to sleep in your bed tonight, and you can sleep out here on the floor.”

 

“You will not.”

 

“I will too, who’s going to stop me?”

 

“Just ‘cause you’re older doesn’t mean I can’t kick your skinny butt out of my room,” I said.

 

Somehow we both managed to maintain straight faces as we exchanged insults. Pretty soon, we’d grabbed each other and were wrestling on the floor. Mum and Dad both groaned in unison and dropped their heads onto the table. Dan, who’d worked out we weren’t being serious, burst out laughing when they did that and that started the two of us off, and soon we were laughing and giggling and trying to tickle each other. Angie saw us rolling on the floor and came over to jump on top of us. Dan yelled “stacks on” and sprawled all over us … did I mention that Dan is pretty big?

 

Soon Tara and I were pretty well flattened. From where I lay, flat on the floor, trying to keep Angie’s elbow out of my face, gasping for air under the combined weights of my two sisters and my brother, I could see Mum and Dad shaking their heads at us in disbelief.

 

 What?

 

What were they expecting?

 

A group hug?

  

2: Cleanliness is next to …

 

It was a week before my thirteenth birthday. I guess that makes it about a month after that stuff with the doors. For most of that month, Tara and I had gotten on with each other pretty well. We even went shopping together once to look for school clothes; both of us have been getting taller. Mum even let Tara take her credit card, but she did check up on us later to make sure we didn’t go over the limits she’d set. It was cool shopping with my sister and not having Mum trying to tell us what clothes to buy. Parents can be such a drag sometimes. That Monday, Tara had been really chirpy and bouncy. She’d hugged me and told me she had something to tell me, but then supper was ready and we spent the evening doing family things so as we went to bed she told me she’d tell me tomorrow.

 

Then on Tuesday, she came home from school, went into her room and slammed the door shut. She hardly spoke to me for the rest of the week but she wasn’t being mean, she just wanted to be left alone. I was wondering if it was her … you know … period, but I didn’t ask her. By Friday night she was more cheerful and she went out with a couple of her girlfriends from school. She hadn’t told me her big secret, but maybe it wasn’t that important after all. On second thoughts, her boyfriend, Ray, hadn’t been around all week either. That was a good thing. I didn’t think much of Ray. Maybe they’d broken up! You can always hope!

 

It was Saturday night, Mum and Dad had gone out with Uncle Stan and Aunty Janice. It was Uncle Stan and Aunty Janices’ wedding anniversary, I don’t remember which one, and Mum and Dad were helping them celebrate. Dan’s football team had no game that week so he’d gone out to a party and we’d been left to look after Angie. Of course Mum had made a fuss before they left and listed out a whole lot of rules for us along with things to do for Angie. Dad just smiled and wrote out the name and phone number of the place they were going plus his mobile number on a piece of paper; then he wrote in big letters: “Rule 0: Think before you act.” Then he stuck the paper next to the phone. Mum’s rules had started with Rule 1: No mess and went up to Rule 20: No boys! I liked Dad’s list of rules better.

 

We changed Angie’s diaper. It was a real stinky one, so we argued a bit about who was going to do the cleanup. It was that kind of friendly, joking argument you have sometimes when you both know it doesn’t matter that much. We’d both changed smelly diapers before. Finally we had her all clean and put the cream on her bum and a fresh diaper and we put her to bed. I can’t wait until Angie’s properly potty trained.

 

Tara and I had hired a movie so we made popcorn and sat and watched it. Angie was unsettled and kept calling out so we had to stop the movie a few times and go talk to her, trying to get her to sleep. We couldn’t figure out what Angie’s problem was until finally I said maybe she’s not used to us being here instead of Mum and Dad. I liked that we were spending a nice evening together, just the two of us hanging out. You know, looking after our sister and watching a movie together. It was cool.

 

Out of nowhere, Tara went all serious and said she had to tell me something. Then she dropped the biggest bombshell ever. She’d given up her virginity last weekend to Ray Staunton. I was all big eyes and scraping my jaw off the carpet. I tried to get her to give me details but she wouldn’t say much except that the first time had hurt a bit, and was over really quick, but the second time was a bit better. She said neither time was special like people say it should be. Then she said Ray had dumped her that Tuesday at school. Turns out, as soon as they’d had sex, he lost interest and wanted to go with someone else.

 

Tara burst out crying and I held her and my top ended up soaked. She’d been holding it in all week and pretending everything was okay but it wasn’t. I didn’t tell her, but she hadn’t done that good a job of hiding that something was wrong. Tara was really devastated and figured it must be because she hadn’t been any good at, you know, the sex stuff. I wanted to say something, you know, reassuring, but I couldn’t think of what to say. It’s not like I’m an expert or anything, you know? In the end I said Ray Staunton was an asshole. I mean he’d have to be to treat Tara like that, wouldn’t he?

 

Eventually Tara stopped crying and I even got her to laugh a bit by cracking really bad jokes but making Ray the punch-line. You know, like: “What’s the difference between a deer and Ray Staunton? If you saw a deer on the road, you’d swerve to avoid it!”

 

After that, we kind of gave up on the movie and sat holding each other and coming up with more jokes like that.  By about ten or so, Tara was feeling better and Angie had finally gone to sleep so we decided to call it a night.

 

I went to get ready for bed while Tara went around the house and double checked that all the doors and windows were locked. The phone rang and it was Dad checking up on us. I told him we were getting ready for bed and he reminded me not to forget to check the doors and windows were locked. I said, “Yes Dad, but that only means the bikie gang we invited over would be locked in here with us.”

 

Tara had heard me on the phone so she leaned in to listen in time to hear Dad laugh and say for me to tell the bikers he had a shotgun and wasn’t afraid to use it if they laid a finger on his daughters. Tara yelled it was bit late for that as they’d already stripped us nekkid and turned us into their sex slaves. Dad went quiet for a second, but then he laughed and called us scamps. He said if everything was okay with us, they were going to go on to a nightclub and they’d be home a bit after midnight. I said that was okay and we’d see them in the morning.

 

We finished getting ready for bed, giggling to each other about being sex slaves to a gang of bikers. I don’t know why we’d picked on bikers. The only biker I know is Liz’s dad. He’s like really big, with a beard and tattoos and everything and he’s about the sweetest man I know, except for Dad and Dan of course. But it would be weird, wouldn’t it? Being nude, I mean, in the middle of a bunch of guys with beards and leather and them touching you all over and doing – you know – stuff. But then, if you were their sex slave they might do disgusting stuff to you as well, and maybe make you do disgusting stuff to them. I crawled into bed and wrapped the blankets around me and tried to tell my brain that the movement outside the window was a tree swaying in the wind. My brain didn’t really believe me.

 

I guess it was only about half an hour later. I was lying in bed, still trying to go to sleep, when the phone rang again. I stumbled out of bed to answer it but Tara got there first. I stood there blinking my eyes in the sudden light and tried to make sense of her side of the conversation. It was all grunts and “I know who you are” and “What?” and “No they’re not here” and “Yeah” and “Really?”

 

Finally she looked at me and said, “Dan’s drunk. He’s completely wasted. It’s his friend Steve. The cops shut down their party. Neither of them can drive, they tried to walk home. They’re in that little park on Westbury St.  Dan laid down and went to sleep. He was hoping one of our parents could go and fetch them.”  

 

“Wow!” I said. “Um … give him Dad’s mobile number.”

 

Tara read the number to Steve then listened and said okay. Steve put her on hold while he dialled Dad. After a bit she and Steve talked again. It turned out Dad’s mobile was giving a “not switched on or out of area” message. She looked at me for a second and then said for Steve to stay there and we’ll come and help get Dan home.

 

I looked at Tara like she was crazy, but she shrugged at me and said Dan needs our help. I couldn’t argue with that so we went to get dressed. I pulled jeans and a sweatshirt over my pyjamas, put on my socks and shoes and I was ready. I met up with Tara back in the kitchen, and then I saw Dad’s bit of paper by the phone with his Rule 0 in big letters. I said, “Wait, let's think about this.”

 

“Okay!”

 

“How can we help Dan when we get there?” I said.

 

“He’s too big for us to carry him,” said Tara.

 

“I know!”

 

“What about the old shopping cart with the big wheels?” said Tara. “We could put him in it and push him home.”

 

“Is it strong enough?”

 

“Should be,” said Tara. “Remember when Dan put the two of us in it and pushed us round the back yard?”

 

“Oh yeah, okay, we’ll take the shopping cart.”

 

“What else?” said Tara.

 

“Angie! We can’t leave Angie alone in the house,” I said.

 

“We’ll have to take her with us.”

 

“In the stroller!” I said.

 

“Yeah!”

 

“What else?” I said.

 

“We should leave a note in case The Parents get home before we get back!” suggested Tara.

 

“Good idea!”

 

So I went and bundled up Angie, turned out she was awake again anyway, and put her in the stroller while Tara wrote a note. Then Tara phoned Dad again but still couldn’t get through, so she left a message on his voice mail.

 

Then I thought of something and went and looked in the side table on Mum’s side of the bed. Sure enough, her work phone was there. I grabbed it. We weren’t supposed to touch it except in emergencies, but I figured, if we had an emergency while we were out, it could be handy. I showed it to Tara and she dialled back Dad’s number and left another message saying we had Mum’s work phone with us. Then she looked at me and asked if we were ready. I said yeah, so we headed for the door.

 

Then I thought of something else, so I ran back to the phone and went through its memory to find Steve’s number. I phoned him and asked if he and Dan could meet us at the bus stop this side of the park ’cause we didn’t want to walk through the park on our own at this time of night. He said no problem, so I hung up and we left. We made sure to leave some lights on so it looked like someone was home and locked the door. Then we headed up the street, me pushing Angie in the stroller and Tara pushing the shopping cart.

 

It was weird to be out walking the streets at that time of night, especially with Angie in the stroller. It wasn’t that scary. We don’t live in a bad area and the streets were pretty quiet. A few cars went past. One car had a couple of guys leaning out the windows. They whistled at us – well they whistled at Tara – but I don’t think they knew what to make of two girls with a cart and a baby in a stroller, so they drove off.

 

Finally we made it to the Westbury Street bus stop and there was Steve sitting on the bench and there was Dan throwing up into the gutter. When we got close, we realized their clothes were all wet and slimy and smelly. It turned out they’d fallen into the pond in the park. That pond should have Health Hazard signs around it. Steve was clearly drunk but still mostly with it, but Dan was completely wasted.

 

Now I understand why some people use the phrase “legless” to describe someone who had too much to drink. We waited ’til Dan stopped throwing up, then Steve helped us get Dan onto the cart. His legs hung out one end and his arms and shoulders and head hung out the other. It looked pretty funny, but it worked.

 

Dan went to sleep with his head on the handle of the cart. Tara and I talked with Steve on the way back but Steve was paying more attention to Tara than me. I finally figured out that Tara and Steve were flirting with each other so I got quiet and pushed Angie without saying anything.

 

I like Steve and normally he’s pretty nice to us when he comes round to the house, but with all the booze, he was being a bit ikky with Tara and saying stuff he normally wouldn’t say to a fourteen year old. At least I hope not, he’s twenty years old for crying out loud. He might have done more but his clothes were wet and slimy from the pond and he stunk of booze and slime so when he tried to put an arm around Tara she just went “Eeew” and pushed him away. That made me feel better.  

 

All that stopped when we got to the big hill. It was just as well Steve was with us ’cause it took all three of us pushing to get Dan up the hill. Finally we made it to the top, then we were at Steve’s place so we said goodbye. Steve tried to kiss Tara goodbye, but she pushed him away.

 

It’s downhill from there to our place, so after leaving Steve, it was easy to get Dan home. Except that Dan suddenly woke up and lurched to the side and threw up. That would’ve been fine, but that was exactly where I was, so his sick went all over me. It was pretty gross! I mean, I’d had Angie throw up on me but that was only a little bit. This was lots and lots and it stunk of beer and it was all up and down one leg of my jeans and all over one arm and down the side of my sweatshirt. Eeew! Tara just laughed at me. In the end, I laughed too. I mean, what else could I do?

 

We got back to the house and it was exactly the same as we left it, so clearly The Parents still weren’t home. Tara took Angie in through the front door; she was fast asleep by then.  No way could Dan and I go in there given the state we were in, the mess would’ve gone right through the house. So I pushed Dan around the back where we have a door straight into the laundry. I woke Dan up by slapping his face and shaking him a bit. Then I tipped him out of the trolley and tried to help him stand up. He got halfway up then fell over with me underneath. Did I mention that Dan is twice my size? I wriggled around but I could hardly move. I started giggling. I was basically spread-eagled, flat on my back. Dan was sprawled all over me.

 

I heard Dan murmur, “Hey babe!” Then he shifted his head and kissed me on the side of my neck, just under my ear. Then he kissed the side of my jaw.

 

I felt a little shiver go through me. That was weird. I figured he didn’t realize who it was, so I was saying “Get off, Dan! You’re heavy! It’s me, Bec! You have to get up!”  

 

Dan shifted so his face was just over mine. His breath stunk of beer and puke. I could see his eyes trying to focus on my face. “Bec? What’re you doin’ in my bed?”

 

“We’re not in your bed. We’re in the back yard. Now get off me!”

 

He peered around, and then started to struggle his way off me. All his weight pressing down on me, then moving around on top of me, was making weird tingling sensations run through me. When his hand brushed over my chest I felt this jolt go through me. I lay still, staring up at Dan, trying to figure out what was going on. I could feel my heart thudding in my chest. My whole front felt flushed, from my face, right down my chest, through my tummy and even further down. Dan was completely oblivious to whatever was going on with me and kept trying to get up. Finally Dan was on his hands and knees hanging over me. Then he sat back on his heels. I kept lying there for a second, trying to figure things out, but my brain was all fizzy and nothing made sense.

 

Finally the cold ground under my back reminded me what I was supposed to be doing, so I clambered to my feet and looked down at Dan kneeling on the ground. I grabbed his arm and looped it over my shoulder so I could help him up. He was covered in pool slime and vomit and spilled beer and who knew what else but I ignored all of that because he was my brother and he needed my help. By the time he was standing up he was swaying like a tree in a storm. I couldn’t hold him like that so both my arms went around his waist and I hugged him close to me and we kind of shuffled towards the back door to wait for Tara to open it for us. He still stunk but I kind of ignored that. It was more important to hold Dan up than worry about my tortured nose.

 

Tara seemed to take forever. When she finally opened the door she said she’d put Angie to bed and had put another message on Dad’s voicemail to say we were back safely.  At least, I think that’s what she was saying, my brain was still fizzy and it was all I could manage to keep my arms wrapped around Dan and steer him inside.

 

We helped Dan into the laundry, but he seemed to space out a bit and leaned against the wall. We decided that we had to get his clothes off and put him in the shower before we could put him into bed because even his hair was gross. One part of my brain was embarrassed about peeling Dan’s clothes off like that, but another part of my brain was concentrating on doing what needed to be done and the two parts weren’t talking to each other.

 

Finally we got him down to only his boxers, but they were wet and grotty too. Tara hesitated for a bit. Then she skimmed his boxers down as well. So there I was looking at my first naked boy ever, even if it was my brother. I know I was blushing and I think Tara was embarrassed too. I realized I was staring at his thing and dragged my eyes away. But I was puzzled. I looked up at Tara and whispered, “I thought it was supposed to be all stiff and sticking out.”

 

She giggled at me then she whispered back, “That’s only when he’s looking at a pretty girl or when he wants to have sex.”

 

I looked up at his face to see where he was looking, but his eyes were closed and he was kind of humming to himself.

 

Tara brought me back to earth by telling me I’d have to strip off too; my clothes were nearly as messy as his. I gulped a bit, then I pointed out she had slime on her too from hanging on to Dan. So we both kicked off our shoes and started to peel off our jeans and tops, dropping them in the washer on top of Dan’s stuff. I hoped I could stop when I got down to my pyjamas but I realized that somehow both Dan’s vomit and dirt from the backyard had gotten onto them too, so I ended up in just my panties. Goosebumps were running up and down my arms; and all down my body too. And did I mention my brain was all fizzy?

 

Tara glanced at me then stripped down to her panties too. She wasn’t wearing a bra of course because this had all started with us in bed. I felt a brief pang of jealousy. Tara’s boobs aren’t that big, but at least she has them. I wanted to cover myself up with my hands. I hate my scrawny, boobless body, but I couldn’t cover up because we had to put in the powder and start the washing machine and then we had to hold Dan up and steer him out of the laundry and into the bathroom.

 

When Tara let go of Dan to get the shower started, he swayed and staggered. I had to use all my strength to stop him from falling. I realized that we would have to get into the shower with him or he’d fall and hit his head on the tiles. When I said this to Tara she looked at Dan, then back at the shower, then back at me and nodded. She skimmed her panties off and stepped backwards into the shower, pulling Dan in with her.

 

I bit my lip and then took mine off as well. Remember my head was still all fizzy? It was like I was having a weird dream or something. I scooped up Tara’s panties from the floor and dropped both pairs into the clothes hamper. Then I stepped into the shower to join my brother and sister.

 

If anyone had told me this morning that I’d be doing this, I’d have laughed and laughed and laughed at them like they were a crazy person.

 

I don’t think they designed the shower stall for three people. It was a bit crowded in there. On the plus side, no one was going to fall over. Tara and I had Dan wedged between us. We all quickly got wet and that made Dan slippery to hold onto. I basically had to plaster myself against him and wrap my arms around him.

 

Everywhere, up and down my body, I was hyper-aware of how my skin was touching Dan’s. It was the most incredible sensation ever. I was tucked in under one of Dan’s arms so it was hanging down my back. Dan was pretty well out of it, but not totally, because he started running his hand up and down my spine, just gentle little caresses. Everywhere his hand touched me I was feeling little shivers and sparks in my back.

 

In the meantime, Tara was stretching up to wash and shampoo Dan’s hair. I stood there, entranced by the way the bubbles from the shampoo were running in little rivers down his chest. I reached up one hand and ran it back and forth across the hard muscles on his chest. The soap made it easy for my hand to glide over his skin. I explored up to his shoulders and then back down to his stomach. He had this thin string of hair that ran up his middle, from the big thatch of hair above his thing, up past his belly button to just below his ribs. I laid my head against his chest and looked down so I could watch as I ran fingers up and down that strip of hair from his chest down to his belly button then up again. All the time, Dan’s hand was caressing my back. I wasn’t cold, but I sure was feeling shivers.

 

I remembered with a start that I was supposed to be washing him. I grabbed the soap from the soap dish and held it in my hand as I ran it over his stomach and around his sides. I heard a squeak from Tara and looked up at her. She was standing tucked in under Dan’s other arm, with the arm draped over her shoulder. Dan had his eyes closed and was nuzzling into her wet hair. His other hand, the one not stroking my back, was wrapped over her shoulder and had reached across and cupped around her breast.

 

Tara stared at me with wide eyes then squeaked again as Dan squeezed her breast then ran his fingers over her nipple. I heard Dan muttering “Hey babe,” then he said something else but his voice was really slurred and I couldn’t understand what he was saying.

 

Tara was looking shocked and staring at me. The shower had plastered her hair down onto her head, strips ran across her face. Water was dripping down off her nose and running down through her hair. I figured I probably looked much the same. I could only stare back at Tara, wondering what she would do, wondering what it felt like, wondering if someone would one day squeeze my future breast like that.

 

Then she giggled and said, “I’m being felt up by my own brother … and he’s doing a damn sight better job of it than Ray Staunton ever did, even though he’s completely wasted.”

 

I giggled back at her then watched as she carefully grabbed Dan’s hand and held it away from her boob.

 

I hugged Dan tighter and tried to hide my face in his chest. I was feeling this real weird mix of embarrassed and happy at the same time. And my whole body was tingling and my brain was back to being fizzy.

 

Tara looked down Dan’s body, then grinned mischievously and said to me, “Did you wash his dick?”

 

“Um … no.”

 

“Well you should. That looks dirty too.”

 

I looked down and reached out to touch but then I jerked my hand back. I think I squeaked. I stepped away from Dan and tried to plaster myself against the wall of the shower.

 

“Okay then, I guess we’re done,” said Tara.

 

She turned the water off and started steering Dan out of the shower. I leaned against the wall of the shower, dripping. Did I mention my brain was all fizzy? My legs were all trembley and they weren’t doing a good job of holding me up. The wall was helping, but not a lot.

 

“Bec! Get out here! I can’t do this on my own!”

 

It was Tara, grunting with effort, trying to steer Dan over to the small chair we keep in the bathroom. With my help we managed to sit him down and towel him ’til he was mostly dry. Then we dried ourselves off, except our hair; that would have to wait until later. First we had to get Dan over to his bedroom and into bed.

 

“Hey girls, watcha doin?” It was Dan, sitting slumped on the bathroom chair. His voice was all slurred and he was peering through half-open eyes, but he was finally aware enough to figure out it was us in the room with him. “Watcha all nekkid for?”

 

I froze for a second, feeling mortified that Dan was looking at my naked body. Don’t ask me to explain that. I don’t understand it either. I’d been naked and in the shower with him for ages and it had only bothered me a little bit. I guess the difference was that now he was aware enough to recognize me … and to realize that I was naked. I guess it freaked me out.

 

I scurried to the bathroom door and grabbed a couple of bathrobes for Tara and me, from where a bunch of them hung on hooks on the back of the door. Wrapping that toweling robe around me and tying up the belt made me feel a whole lot more secure.

 

Dan lurched to his feet and declared that he was going to bed. He staggered to the doorway of the linen closet and tried to open it. Tara and I each wrapped a towel around our hair, all the time trying to tell Dan he was at the wrong door. Finally we both got the towels finished and steered Dan out through the right door into the corridor and towards his room.

 

We got safely through the door and about three steps down the corridor when all three of us lurched suddenly to a halt. The remaining warm and fuzzy feelings left inside me disappeared as if I’d been dunked in a bucket of ice water. All I could do was stand, one arm wrapped around Dan’s naked waist, the other holding his arm over my shoulder. We had come face to face with The Mother.

 

Given where we were and how we were dressed – or in Dan’s case, undressed – even a stupid person could’ve figured out we’d just been in the shower together, and nobody ever accused Mum of being stupid. All I could do was stand there, blinking, waiting for that big axe to fall.

 

It was Dan who broke the ice, when he slurred out. “Lookin’ good, Mumma Bear!” I looked again at Mum. She was all dolled up in an aqua evening gown and matching heels with her hair all done up nicely. I had to agree with Dan, she surely was looking fine! I do believe I saw her cheeks go pink in the smallest of blushes too. Then Dan’s big, drunken mouth had to keep going, “Didja get lucky tonight, Mumma? I scored me a coupla babes, and they was takin me ta bed!”

 

I know I gasped, and I’m sure Tara did too, then I gasped again as Dan squeezed both of us into his sides, squeezing the breath out of me.  I knew Dan was trying to tease Mum but that didn’t stop his comment being a bit embarrassing. Then I figured I’d brave it out, so I wriggled in a way I figured might look a bit sexy and laid my head against Dan’s side. At that moment, all the squeezing and shifting and wriggling caused the belt on my robe to come undone and my robe fell open, exposing everything I had to Mum. I just about died. I thought I could be as flirty as the next person, but all my confidence vanished when I was so exposed in front of my mother. I tried to rescue my robe but one arm was caught behind Dan and the other was trapped beneath Dan’s arm, squeezing into my side. All I could do was stand there and blush and maybe whimper a bit. Right then I had a lot of understanding for the rabbits caught in truck headlights, you know, the ones that can only sit and stare as their doom rushes down on them.

 

Mum kind of half-smiled, then said “I see that rumors of my family being stripped ‘nekkid’ and turned into sex slaves have some basis in reality!”

 

Then she stepped forward and closed my robe for me, retying the belt with quick, efficient moves. I tried to thank her with my eyes; I didn’t trust my mouth to work properly. Mum quickly kissed me on the cheek, then she grabbed Dan’s chin and used it to tilt his head so she could look straight into his eyes. “Hmmm, I’m thinking bed is a really good idea for you right now, but your harem won’t be joining you there.”

 

Then she sighed and turned, striding towards Dan’s room, with a quick “Come on then” flung over her shoulder. All we could do was shuffle after her in silence.

 

Mum held the door for us to get into Dan’s room, and then threw back the blankets on his bed. Dan finally let us go. He crawled onto the bed before collapsing in a naked, ungainly heap. Mum gently pulled the blankets back over him and tidied them up. Dan was snoring by the time she was finished. Tara and I stood by the door and watched silently as Mum sat for a moment on the bed and tenderly stroked his hair. Then she sighed and shook her head before standing, turning each of us by a shoulder and guiding us out the door. Mum steered us towards the living room, then ducked into Angie’s room to quickly check on her.

 

Dad was waiting in the living room, seated in his usual chair, looking relaxed but his eyes were alert when we entered the room as he took in our bathrobes and towel-wrapped heads. Tara and I glanced at each other and then took our places, side by side, on the couch. We both sat carefully and adjusted our robes to make sure we didn’t flash anything we shouldn’t flash. Not a word was spoken until Mum rejoined us and took up her usual chair.

 

To tell the absolute truth, I had no idea if we were in trouble or not. I didn’t think we’d done anything particularly wrong by going to fetch Dan and bringing him back, but I suspected if they wanted to, they could decide we shouldn’t have done it. We sat and explained our actions; what we did and why we did it. We took turns to answer questions. Dad explained that the place they’d been in for dinner had a singer and had asked for mobile phones to be turned off. He’d gone outside to phone us, then gone back in and turned his phone off again. He forgot it was off until they were driving home when they heard all our messages at once. He apologized to us for the problems that caused.

 

We told them the whole story. We’d long ago learned not to lie to The Parents in these sorts of situations, and we weren’t sure if we were in trouble or not. We did edit the truth a bit. We left out stuff about Steve hitting on Tara, we left out stuff that happened in the shower, but apart from that, we told the whole story. Finally we finished and sat looking at The Parents’ faces.

 

They looked at each other and did that amazing parent-telepathy thing they do. You know, where they make a joint decision by looking at each other. Then Mum looked at her watch and said, “Well, it’s after one in the morning, let’s all get to bed.” She stood up and waited for us to stand as well.

 

“But … are we in trouble?” Tara wanted to know.

 

“Of course not!” put in Dad. “You did everything right! In fact, I would’ve been disappointed if you didn’t help your brother, given the circumstances. Good night, I’ll see you in the morning.” With that, he pulled himself up out of his chair and headed out of the room.

 

“But Mum, what about Dan? Is he going to be in trouble?” I wanted to know.

 

Mum gave that little half smile of hers.

 

“Getting drunk like that has its own punishment attached. It’s called a hangover!”

 

Then her smile turned really evil.

 

“And I intend to enjoy every minute of it.”

 

 

 

3: Sunday Breakfast

 

My mother is evil! I mean, really evil. Don’t get me wrong. I love her and all that, and a lot of the time she’s really nice. But when she gets it into her head to give someone a hard time, you do not want to be that someone. This time it was my brother Dan who was in her sights and she was locked, loaded and ready to fire. I guess until I’m older and have had a few hangovers myself, I won’t really understand how evil Mum was that Sunday morning, but I had a pretty good idea when it was happening.

 

Dan had gotten drunk the night before. Really, really drunk! And Mum was severely ticked off. She knew he would have a hangover, and she intended to extract the full extent of suffering from him. Unfortunately, my sister Tara and I were unwilling recruits for her little games.

 

When Mum first came to get me for breakfast, I was in my room dressed only in panties, looking at myself in the mirror. Something, I hasten to add, I don’t do very often. I know I have an ugly body so I usually don’t bother looking at it. Maybe I’ll explain why I was looking later, but right now, this is about my mother.

 

Mum knocked on my door as she opened it, dressed in her usual Sunday dress, plus frilly apron, to find me standing there in my underwear. Of course I squealed and turned my back on her, before yelling “MUM!” at her in my most outraged voice. I was mortified that Mum had walked in on me like that.

 

She snorted at me, “For goodness sake, girl, put some clothes on. It’s nearly time for breakfast, and you certainly won’t be getting fed if you turn up dressed like that!”

 

As if I would ever turn up to breakfast like that anyway!! With that she started to leave, then stopped and turned back, “Why don’t you wear that nice top your Aunt Janice gave you last Christmas?”

 

I had been in the process of wrapping a robe around myself when she dropped that little bombshell. I held it closed around me as I turned to stare at her in shock. “But Mum, it’s ugly! I hate that thing.”

 

“Don’t be silly! It’s perfectly nice. I’m sure your aunt will be delighted to hear that you’ve been wearing it.”

 

Mum had that tone of voice that made it plain that there was no point arguing. Silly me, I tried anyway; “Mum, pleeeeeease, do I have to?”

 

Mum put this really severe look on her face, then she reached into the wardrobe and pulled it straight out. She didn’t have any trouble spotting it in the middle of my other clothes. The damn thing was a bright iridescent green with yellow and purple splotches all over it. I think it was probably radioactive! I was quite convinced that wearing it would expose both me and everyone around me to a crippling dose of deadly gamma rays.

 

“Oh, will you tell Tara she can wear hers too. For some reason, hers ended up in the rubbish, but I rescued it and washed it so it should be perfect. It’s on a hanger on her door. Oh and do be a sweetie and get her up for me, I have to get back to cooking breakfast. You’ve got fifteen minutes.”

 

She’d done that whole speech with a sickly sweet, butter-wouldn’t-melt smile fixed to her evil, evil, evil face. Then she left the room, closing the door behind her before I had a chance to respond.

 

Boy, did I want to respond. You see Tara is not a morning person. I usually wake up before her, and I usually wake up quickly. Tara, on the other hand, well …. ughhh! To make things worse, we’d both been up extremely late the night before. Waking Tara was not my idea of a fun way to spend Sunday morning.

 

Realizing I had little choice, I sighed and pulled on some clean sweatpants and the monstrosity of a shirt. The shirt didn’t go with the sweatpants, but I wasn’t sure if I owned anything that would go with the shirt, so I opted for at least a little bit of comfort. I headed next door to Tara’s room, knocked and went in. I didn’t bother waiting for a reply; I knew Tara would still be fast asleep. I went to the window and pulled the curtains apart a bit so there would be some light in the room, then went and sat on the bed next to my sister.

 

I grabbed her shoulder and gave her a firm shake. “Hey! Wake up!” No response! I shook her again and got a muffled groan. A third shake resulted in a long, drawn-out moan while she rolled flat onto her stomach and buried her head, face first, into the pillow.

 

“Wakey-wakey, Tara! You have to get up!” I grabbed all her blankets and stripped them down to the bottom of her bed. Tara was wearing a long pale-blue nightie, but it was twisted up and had ridden up so she was flashing her panty-clad bum at me.

 

“Mnnmmmphgh! Get orraffmmm y litllll raaaat!” (I think that’s what she said.)

 

I shook her again. “Come on, Tara, wake up!”

 

A fist came flying blindly back at me and struck me right on the chest. It hurt! I mean she hadn’t hit that hard but my chest had been tender lately, and she’d connected right there. I grabbed her wrist firmly with both hands, backed off the bed, and hauled backwards as hard as I could. Sure enough, Tara came sliding straight off the bed and thumped onto the ground, pillow still clutched firmly in her other arm.

 

“Owww! What’d you do that for, you little shit?”

 

“You hit me! You utter bitch! Mum sent me to get you up. You have to get up.”

 

“I’m up!!” It was more of a groan than a statement, and at the same time, she curled up on the floor and put her head back on the pillow.  

 

“Come on, Tara, you have to get moving!”  The white panties stretched over her backside were too inviting a target. I leaned down and smacked her, right on the bum.

 

She suddenly spun around and sat up, glaring at me through a mess of tangled hair.

 

“Get lost you pile of scum! If you touch me again, I’ll …” her voice trailed off and she squinted at me and used a hand to clear hair away from her eyes. “What the heck are you wearing?”

 

I sighed, “This is the shirt Aunty Janice gave to me last Christmas. Mum wants you to wear yours too.” I waved at the chair in front of her dresser, where I’d draped Tara’s shirt on the way into the room. Her shirt was as bad as mine. It was a luminescent yellow with multi-colored diagonal stripes.

 

Tara stared at it in horror, and then groaned. “Shit, I knew I should’ve burnt that wretched thing! Ohhh kill me now!!”

 

I was sooooo tempted!!!

 

Tara let herself fall backwards so hard, her head made an enormous thump as it hit the floor.

 

“You have about ten minutes to get ready for breakfast,” I said. “You have to be wearing that shirt. I don’t think Mum’s in the kind of mood where you can get away with being late.”

 

I turned and left, closing the door behind me. I went to my room and spent a few minutes brushing my hair, then headed for the kitchen. Mum saw me arrive then grabbed an old saucepan and headed off to Dan’s room. I slid into my chair and looked around the table. Mum had obviously been busy. The kitchen smelt strongly of frying bacon and burnt toast and some other fairly strong smells I couldn’t identify. I wondered about the burnt toast smell. Mum’s never burnt a piece of toast in her life. The table was loaded with plates of food, all of them covered with lids to keep the food hot.

 

At that moment I heard an awful clanging sound from Dan’s room. Mum was obviously bashing the saucepan with a metal spoon. Then I could hear her screaming at Dan to wake up and how he was already late for breakfast and so on. She sounded pretty furious.

 

Tara and Dad slid into their chairs just as Mum came back into the kitchen. Tara had her revolting yellow shirt on. Dad was wearing this awful Hawaiian shirt. I was pretty sure he hadn’t chosen to wear it. With the three of us sitting in a row like that, we clashed horribly with each other, we clashed with the kitchen furniture, and we clashed with ourselves. I know I was wincing at the sight. As usual for breakfast, Tara was sitting slumped over, staring down at her empty plate. She seemed oblivious of the fashion crime we were all committing.

 

Mum had come back to the kitchen, relaxed and smiling. She put the now dented saucepan into the sink, then moved around the table, pouring milk for each of us, all the time singing this little song under her breath. I reached out to my glass to have a mouthful of milk but Mum slapped my hand away from the glass. Then she was standing next to me with a collection of tiny colored bottles in her hands. She selected one then carefully dripped several drops into my milk.

 

“What are you doing?” I asked

 

“It’s food dye,” she said. “It has no taste but it changes the color. Now give it a stir.”

 

I picked up a small spoon and stirred my milk. Then I stared in a mixture of wonder and revulsion. Have you ever put a tiny amount of green food dye into milk? It doesn’t give that strong green color of a lime milkshake. Instead you get a pale, insipid sort of moldy green that looks like … well … milk that’s gone off in a really bad way.

 

“Taste it!”

 

I glanced at Mum doubtfully and then cautiously sipped at the “milk.” To my surprise, it tasted like, well, milk! I shrugged at Mum, then put the glass back on the table. “It’s okay, I guess!”