Chapter 1

A new next door neighbor moved in several months ago. He bought the large house next door. He’s an older guy, probably in his mid forties. Dad thinks it’s weird that a single guy bought the biggest house and lives alone. And he never seems to go out either. We never see him go to work or have friends over or go out at night. The only time we see him is when he goes to the store or when he does his yard work.

Dad said he thinks the guy must be gay because he lives alone and he’s fixing his house up.

He sure seems to be spending a lot of money on it. He replaced the roof and the central heat and air system. He’s had all new windows installed and there have been people working inside until it looked like he was rebuilding the house from the inside out.

He also had a swimming pool built in the back yard. Not one of those kinds where they dig a hole and truck in a preformed pool either. I saw it once when it was almost finished. The builders left the back gate open and I snuck in. Man! You should see it! It’s huge! Not square either. It’s shaped like a clover with a big fake cliff at one end that’s going to be a waterfall. I haven’t seen it since they finished putting it in but I’d really like to. It must be beautiful.

I don’t care if the guy is gay but dad can’t stand the guy and he’s never even talked to him. I’d never say anything but I can’t help wondering if dad isn’t just little jealous because of all the money the guy is spending fixing the place up.

I saw our new neighbor talking to Mrs. Phillips once. She lives on the other side of him. They were both working in their yards and they stopped what they were doing and talked for a few minutes.

I asked her about him later but she couldn’t tell me much. She said he seemed nice enough. He was friendly but didn’t talk about himself. She didn’t really learn anything about him.

No one but dad has had anything to complain about since the new guy moved in. He doesn’t make any noise and his house is now the nicest one on the block.

My mom never says anything when dad makes his little comments about the new neighbor. She doesn’t like gay people either. But then, she doesn’t like much of anything. She especially doesn’t seem to like anything that has to do with sex. She freaked out a couple of months ago when she found a copy of Playboy in my brother’s room. I thought it was funny but she jumped all over my poor brother. And when dad came home she started in on him as soon as he sat down at the table.

I was thinking, “Geez, mom! Get over it! It’s just naked women for Christ’s sake!”

I figured it could have been a lot worse. What if he had been looking at naked men? She would have had a heart attack!

I didn’t see anything wrong with what he did. He’s fifteen. That’s old enough to be looking at pictures like that. Besides, Playboy isn’t so bad. When I get older I think it would be cool to have my picture in Playboy. Except I wouldn’t want my brother to see them. That would creep me out.

Dad assured mom that he’d take care of it. Poor Brad just sat there at the table picking at his food. He was so embarrassed he couldn’t look anyone in the eye. I thought that was a sucky thing to do to the kid, not that I don’t mind seeing him suffer a little from time to time.

I don’t know what dad said to him. I never heard any more about it.

Dad works for a bank downtown. He’s a loan officer. Mom is a stay at home mom. Most of my friend’s mothers work and sometimes I wish mine did too. She’s a good mom. She keeps the house real neat and she’s a great cook. But sometimes it seems like she’s always watching us. She is always home and making sure we don’t have any fun. The main word in her vocabulary is ‘NO!’ If she ever wanted to work outside the home I’m pretty sure she’d make a great prison guard.

Mom got her own computer last year. It may sound like I just changed the topic but just hang on for a little bit. This all ties together. When her computer was first installed I spent a couple of hours showing her how it works and how to find things on the internet. She spends a lot of time on it now. Dad doesn’t joke much. But I’ve heard him kid her about it a couple of times. He jokingly says things like, “If I didn’t know you better I’d swear you were spending all of your time looking at porn.”

Mom got all upset when he said that. She doesn’t even like it when people use the word porn. She says that she is spending her time on line talking with her sister, Aunt Helen and with her best friend who moved to the upstate a few months ago. She got all defensive. She got so upset that I almost started to wonder if she really has been looking at porn!

School let out for the summer last Friday. I’m a good student and I like school. But I have to be honest. I like summer vacation a whole lot more.

My brother started hanging around with his friends, Larry and Gordy during the day. I’ve been pretty much on my own for the first two weeks. I don’t mind, though. I love to read and I like being able to sleep late and enjoy the peace and quiet.

My best friend is Gail. She’s the girl I spend most of my free time with. But she’s on a two-week vacation with her parents at their cabin in the mountains. Well, it isn’t really their cabin. They rent it every year as soon as school gets out. I went with them once. It was a real neat cabin but it’s way out in the woods and there is absolutely nothing to do there. It’s on a nice lake but the water is so cold you can’t even swim in it.

So I’m just taking it easy until Gail comes home. Most of my time is spent reading, going to the park or lying out in the backyard. I lie there in the hot sun and wish that my parents would make friends with our new neighbor so I could use the pool next door.

I also wish that my mother was a working mother like most of my friend’s mothers. My mom is such a prude! I’m forced to lay out in a modest two-piece suit that looks like a granny suit. Mom will not allow me to wear a real bikini even when I’m all alone in the backyard.

Not long ago I was all alone in the backyard reading my book and getting some sun. I unfastened the strap on my top so I could get some sun on that white line across the middle of my back.

Mom caught me and went totally nuts. Crap! You would have thought I was lying there naked! She went on and on about morals and modesty and I kept nodding and saying, “Sure, mom,” and, “Yes, mom.” But all I was thinking was, “What a fucking prude!”

You guys are probably bored to death by all this but I thought it was important to give you a little background about my family and all, because something happened. It started the first Monday after school let out. Well, I became aware of it then. I’m not sure when it started.

I was convinced that my mother is the most uptight woman in the world. I still love her, though. That’s why I was so concerned when that Monday after school got out for the summer I saw something really strange. I was in my bedroom. I had just put my suit on and I was about to go out in the backyard and get some of that late afternoon sun. I picked up my book and my IPod. I stood up and glancing out of my bedroom window I was surprised to see my mother coming out of our new neighbor’s backyard.

Mom seemed to be limping. I became curious when I saw her looking around nervously. It looked as though she’s afraid someone she knows might see her. For some reason the word “furtive” came to mind. I’ve never used that word in a sentence but when I watched my mom sneaking back over to our house and looking around to make sure she isn’t seen I knew what furtive looked like. That really piqued my curiosity.

I didn’t think it was even remotely possible she would do anything wrong. She is the most uptight female I know. But something just didn’t look right.

I wrapped a towel around my waist, grabbed my book and my sunglasses and went downstairs. She was coming in and when we met on the stairs she looked scared!

I asked, “What’s the matter, mom? Are you okay?”

She seemed really flustered. She nodded and replied, “I’m fine, Lisa.”

She didn’t look fine and she sure as hell didn’t sound fine. I said, “I saw you coming out of our new neighbor’s yard. Did you talk to him? What’s he like? And why are you limping?”

She turned bright red and said, “I’m limping because I twisted my ankle. And I was not in our neighbor’s yard! You’re mistaken!”

She turned then and said, “I have to go put something on my ankle. You go on out in the backyard. And make sure you use enough sun block!”

Okay. Now that was weird. I saw her coming out of the guy’s yard! She’s totally lying to me!

I turned and watched her limp upstairs. I watched her until she was out of sight. Then I went outside and stretched out on my towel to get some sun. I opened my book but I couldn’t read. My mind was going around in circles over my mother lying to me. I could not imagine my mother ever telling a lie. She is the most modest, the most prudish, and the most proper person I know.

For just a fraction of a second I wondered if she could be having an affair with our new neighbor. But I dismissed that thought before it was even fully formed. It wasn’t even remotely possible.

I put my book down, rested my head on my arms and closed my eyes. I enjoyed the warm rays of the sun on my back and my legs and my mind replayed what I had seen over and over. There was just no explanation for it. I’m no Nancy Drew but I resolved to keep my eye out for more strange behavior from my mother. The curiosity was killing me.

Nothing more was said about what I saw that afternoon. By the time I went back in the house my mother seemed to be back to normal. She no longer walked with a limp and she was no longer flustered. But she did seem to be having a hard time looking me in the eye.

The next day I planned to go to the library. Well, that was what I told my mother. I was actually planning to meet a couple of friends at the Dairy Queen. I got dressed and started walking down the street. I was half way to the end of the block before I realized I had forgotten my money.

I don’t carry money as a general rule. I can be pretty absent minded sometimes and I’ve already lost my purse on a couple of occasions. So I leave my money and my important things like my library card and my student ID at home unless I’m going to need them.

I swore and wheeled around just in time to see my mother come out of the side door of our house. After looking around to make sure she was unobserved she rushed across our driveway, crossed our new neighbor’s driveway, and hurried down beside his house.

From where I was standing I couldn’t see if she entered his house or if she went into his backyard. I waited for her to return but after a few minutes it was apparent that she was not going right back to our house.

I started walking back down the street. As I walked I called one of the girls I was supposed to meet and told her that something had come up and I wouldn’t be able to make it today.

I went home and went back upstairs to my room. My bedroom window looks out on our driveways. From my window I can see the side door of the neighbor’s house and the gate into his backyard.

I felt funny spying on my mom. But I was afraid that something was wrong and I ... I don’t know. I just needed to know.

I stared through my bedroom window for more than an hour before my mother came back out of the neighbor’s back yard. Once more she looked around nervously and when she was certain she wasn’t being observed she hurried to our side door and came in.

I listened as she rushed upstairs to her room. I waited until I heard the shower running in the master bath before I started to sneak back out of the house.

Her bedroom door was open when I made my way quietly down the hall. I glanced in to make sure she wasn’t in her room. I didn’t want her to see me sneaking out. I could hear her in the shower and I knew it was safe. I started to continue down the hall but then I stopped.

I quietly made my way back to her room and, making sure she was still in the shower I snuck in. The clothes she had been wearing were on the bed and to say that I was shocked would be an understatement. Laying on top of her normal very conservative dress was a set of the sexiest, laciest underwear I’ve ever seen. I would have bet anything I own that my mother has never in her entire life worn anything like the bra and panty set that was lying there on her bed.

I stared at them for a moment before going over and picking up her panties. I felt like a criminal spying on her this way. But I couldn’t stop myself. I held the panties up and stretched them out. They were really beautiful, very, very sexy. But they were just not something my mother would ever wear.

I held them up about face high. I was looking at them in disbelief when something suddenly fell onto my elbow. It was warm and wet and had a very strong odor. I shivered and under my breath I exclaimed, “Ewww! Gross!”

I lowered my mother’s underwear and looked inside. The crotch was soaking wet and there was more of that stuff on the crotch panel that hadn’t soaked in yet. I sniffed it and even though I’ve never seen or smelled it before, I knew damn well what it was. My mother had a man’s cum in her panties!

I stood there staring in shock at the crotch of her underwear until I heard my mom turn the shower off. I dropped the panties and hurried out of the room. I almost panicked. I started to turn and go back to my room. But then I came to my senses and hurried down the stairs and went outside.

I stood on the steps for a few minutes and tried to calm down. Then I went back in the house. I didn’t hear my mom so I called out and told her that I was home. She called back down the stairs that she didn’t feel well and was lying down.

That was perfect with me. I couldn’t even imagine facing her right now. I went up to my room and sat there staring out of my window at nothing. My mind was spinning like a top. This just could not be! My straight laced, up tight, puritan of a mother is having an affair! Even after seeing the evidence I didn’t believe it!

To be honest, I wasn’t just upset about her having an affair. I sat on my bed for a long time and the more I thought about it the angrier I became. It just wasn’t right that she would throw a freaking fit over Brad having a Playboy and all but consign me to hell because I want a bikini like every other girl I know. And all the while she’s running next door and fucking the gay guy who just moved in.

I laughed to myself then. I thought that dad would be so relieved to find out that the guy isn’t gay after all. All I have to do is wait for him to come home and say, “Good news, dad! The new next door neighbor isn’t gay after all. I know he likes pussy because he’s fucking mom.”

I’m sure that my homophobic father would be so relieved.

I was still sitting there trying to decide what, if anything, I should do when Brad got home. He stopped by my room on the way to his own. He stood at my door and it looked like he was going to say something.

His lips moved as if to speak but then he stopped when he saw me. I never did find out what he came in to say. He looked at me for a minute and asked, “What’s wrong? You look like you just found out you’re pregnant.”

I gave him a dirty look and then I tried to decide if I should tell him what I just witnessed, and what I discovered on her bed while my mother was taking a shower.

I didn’t doubt for a second that if dad found out mom is having an affair with the next door neighbor he’d be gone. He’s one of those conservative religious “eye for an eye” kinds of guys. He’s so conservative that we recently stopped going to church because we got a new pastor and dad thinks he’s too liberal. My father is one of the most intolerant people I know. I’ve noticed that religion and hate often go hand in hand.

I don’t know what’s going to happen to our family now but I know I don’t want us to be split up.

Brad and I are pretty close. As close as any brother and sister I guess. I love him like a brother. We fight sometimes. We’re human. Like most brothers and sisters I know, we have our own groups of friends and we don’t really interact that much.

I suppose he’s alright for a brother. I trust him. I just don’t know if he could keep this to himself. I think I’m afraid he would say something to mom more than I am that he would tell dad.

I decided that I had best keep what I know to myself for now. I told him nothing is wrong. He didn’t believe me. I saw the skepticism on his face. But I suppose he was afraid it was some “female” thing. He sure as hell doesn’t want to hear about any of that stuff! So he let it go. He forgot all about whatever had originally brought him into my room and he turned and went to his room.

Dad went to work at the usual time the next day. Brad left for a baseball game with a bunch of his friends at ten. After Brad left I told my mom I’m going to the park down the street for a couple of hours. I went far enough down the street that I thought she wouldn’t spot me and watched from behind a tree.

I only had to wait fifteen minutes before my mother snuck out of the house and into our neighbor’s backyard.

I waited a few minutes and when she didn’t return I walked quietly to the gate that led into our neighbor’s yard. I listened for any indication of what was going on in there. I didn’t hear anything at first. I heard the faint sound of the waterfall. But no one was talking. Not at first.

Chapter 2 »