Chapter 3

As it was a fantastic day, I wanted to go for a walk, and Rachel agreed, and so we got ready, and then we were off, and I showed her the neighbourhood, introduced her to a few of the people I knew, and she had a ball, revelling in her freedom.

We ended up at the park, and stood there, watching some kids playing ball, and seeing the few families having a great day. The park was three blocks from my place, and we just stood there, and Rachel took a deep lungful of air, and said it was a marvellous day, then a cloud went over the sun, the temperature dropped, and then Rachel screamed, looking behind me, and as I turned to look at what she was seeing, lightning hit me in the lower back, a ripping feeling, the pain excruciating. I turned, and Freddy Winton stood there, a crazed look in his eyes, and he was holding a knife, and then he spat at me, and sneered, "Fucking queer bastard!", and then I felt weak, and dropped to my knees. Rachel was still screaming, holding me up, and Freddy Winton raced off, laughing evilly.

I fell to the ground, and couldn't move. I was sad, for Rachel mainly, and I tried to speak, to tell her not to worry, that I loved her, but no words came out. I went cold, and shivered. There were people all around me, but I had gone deaf, I saw their mouths moving, but couldn't hear a word they were saying. Then I was above my body, and Rachel was lying on me, shaking me, screaming at me, telling me to get up, and I saw two men pull her off me. Her hands were covered in blood, and I wondered if she was hurt.

The sky was going dark, and I thought that that was strange. EMT's were working on me, then everything skipped to me on a hospital gurney, lights whizzing past, and people were yelling, and then everything around started to glow a peaceful white, and then I was standing in front of Mom, and I began to cry, happy to see her again. She took my hands and told me I had done a wonderful job with Rachel, she was proud of me, and I could feel the love that she had for me.

She looked into my eyes, sadly but with a depth of love that comforted me, and told me I had to go back, that Rachel needed me, we still had much to do, people to help. I cried, and told her I loved her, and she said she knew, she loved us both, but I couldn't stay, and she promised that she'd see us both again and let go my hands, and then I was zipping backwards, and then I felt a heaviness envelop me, and I knew I was in my body again, and I was looking at the ceiling of a hospital room.

Rachel was sleeping on a chair beside the bed, her legs drawn up, and she looked terrible. She was haggard, and her eyes were puffy and red, and she had my hand in hers, and I had the feeling that she hadn't let it go the entire time I'd lain in that bed.

I must have made a sound, because Rachel's eyes snapped open, and with scream of joy, threw herself on me, and I groaned, and then she was weeping and hugging me, and nurses rushed into the room thinking there was an emergency, but seeing me weakly grinning over Rachel's antics, they checked me over, pronounced me fine and doing well.

Then Judy was there, and Rachel wasn't, and I hadn't realised I'd slept until I woke, and Judy took my hand and asked me how I felt.

"Like death warmed up!" I said weakly.

"You gave us all a scare", she said. "You died three times before they got you into the operating theatre. It was like you didn't want to come back!"

"No wonder my chest hurts", I winced, "and they must have used the paddles on me."

"And you're right; I didn't want to come back. I was with Mom, and I saw her, and held her hands, and she looked great! She looked strong and happy, and peaceful, at rest."

I told Judy what had happened.

I began crying, grief at being separated from my Mom a second time tearing at me worse than the knife in the hand of that crazed druggie, Freddie Winton. Judy came to me, and held me as I sobbed into her chest. When I stopped, I was gasping, out of breath.

"She told me I had to come back, Rachel needed me. How is she? Where is she?"

"We took turns watching over you; otherwise she'd have stayed here, and pined away for you. You've done well with her. Your Mom is not the only one who's noticed, you know!"

She smiled, her eyes twinkling. "I'll call her, and let her know you're awake and asking for her. She didn't want to go to school today, so I called the school, and they understand why she's not there today."

I must have looked confused, because she told me, "It's Monday. You've been out for nearly two days". Judy told me to relax, and went to give Rachel the news I was awake.

I was in the hospital for a week, doctors coming to check on me, and Judy bought Rachel in almost every day, Rachel looked thin and pale, not eating much, worried for me. I growled her for not eating, and she glared at me, and then she smiled, and she had the grace to blush under my telling off.

Then I was ready for home, to convalesce under Judy and Rachel's care. I was still weak, and Rachel couldn't keep her eyes from my face, and she didn't want to let me go for a moment.

When we got home, they helped me to rest on the couch, and as I sank onto it, I gave it a pat, and said, "Hello, old friend, good to see you again!"

Both women looked at me, then each other, then that broke the sombre mood, and they were laughing, and Rachel came to me, hugged me, her eyes tearing up, and told me not to leave her again, she'd die of a broken heart, "which almost happened", she said, her voice cracking.

"Not if I can help it," I told her. "I'm under orders to look after you!" I told her pointing upward. Rachel's eyes bugged, and she gasped, "You saw her? You saw Mom?"

"Sure did," I told her. "She's well, and she loves you."

Rachel went "Awww," and started crying again, burying herself into my embrace.

The police went straight to the Winton house, and after a thorough search, they found the knife he'd used, a hunting knife, up in the crawlspace above the ceiling where he'd thrown it. It still had my blood and his fingerprints on it. He was stoned when he attacked me, probably to get his courage up, and his father tried to stop them taking 'his boy' and assaulted a couple of officers, so both of them had a ride to the jail, and with the bloody knife as evidence, over a dozen witnesses to the attack, and his spittle on my clothes giving a DNA match, Freddie wouldn't see free sky for a very long time. They gave the little bastard life without the possibility of parole for attempted murder. The Wintons moved not long after that, and a nice family moved in, Carl and Roberta Jamison, with their thirteen year old daughter, Mary-Louise.

The doctor I saw for a regular check-up following my release from hospital told me that I was extremely lucky, that two inches higher, and the point of the knife would have penetrated my kidney, and I would have bled out in under two minutes, and nothing would have saved me.

Then the doctor, who'd been our family doctor and friend, dropped a bombshell on Rachel and me as we sat there in his office. He looked uncomfortable, and he fidgeted in front of us. Finally, he gave a growl and told us, "Dammit, you two, but what I got to tell you, well, I'm breaking my oath, so you better listen up good!"

He told us that when I'd been in the theatre, Rachel, being distraught and panicking, offered her blood as I'd lost a great amount, and they tested mine and hers, and we weren't a match, different blood types. I held my sister's hand and gave it a squeeze in gratitude.

The doctor gave a "Humph" and said, "But that ain't the point! You don't have the same blood! Two different fathers and neither were your Dad, Gregory Marks. Same mother, different fathers."

We were in shock, to put it mildly. The doctor went on to say that the man we thought was our father was sterile, and so he punished our mother by 'farming her out' for gang-bangs, charging money for attendance, and he almost spat as he told us that, so great was his distaste for the mongrel our mother had married.

"Your mother made me promise not to tell anyone, when I had to clean up the damage a time or two, and my oath made that easy. But, I've been carrying this around inside me for too many years, and I can't hold it in any longer."

He leaned back in his chair, and shook his head. "Your mother," he said, "was a wonderful, gentle woman. Why she didn't just kill that sumbitch in his sleep is beyond me. Who knows, maybe she did, finally. She could have turned the wheel, causing the car to wreck out there that day! It would do my heart good, knowing he screamed on the way down, as your mother would have screamed as she was raped!"

We didn't say anything as we drove home that day. The weather matched our mood, and it rained all the way back to the house.

Judy came over to see how we were, and we sat down and shared with her what the doctor had said. Her eyes were hard at the news about what Gregory Marks had done, but she hung her head, and confessed she knew about the vile man using our Mom like he did.

"Your Mom made me swear on our love for each other that I'd never tell you what he had done," she told us. "The doctor telling you makes that promise invalid, now. She was in a bad situation, and for your sake, Alfie, she stayed with him, and put up with his vile practices. We'd sit in your kitchen, right here, and her throat would be sore and hoarse from the screaming she did as she was raped. But that piece of inhumanity she called her husband enjoyed hearing her scream as she was taken, time and again."

I looked at Judy sitting there and wringing her hands. I felt for her, and so I got up, went around the table and hugged her. She stood, and then Rachel was there, too, and we all held each other, and the women cried, their sadness matching my own, and I felt a deep sense of loss and shame. Loss for our mom, and Judy's friend, and shame for what the man she had married had done to her.

I let them go, and I said to Judy, "You mentioned your love for each other. Was that love as friends, or something more?"

Judy stood there, and I saw something in her eyes besides tears, and she stood taller, held her head high, and looking me in the eye, she said "This may come as a shock, you two, but your mother and I were lovers!"

We sat at the table for hours, talking about Judy's relationship with our mother, and she was relieved when we didn't judge her, just accepted her and the bond she had had with our Mom, and she told us that Peter, her husband, didn't know any of the details of our family past, of her past with Janice, our Mom, and she asked us to keep it that way.

We of course promised, and were a tight group of three again, and then Judy got up, and said she had to go and get Peter's dinner on, as he'd be home from work shortly. She gave us a hug, and left. Rachel looked at me, and said nothing. I didn't feel like talking either, so we had dinner in silence, and then we went and had our respective showers, and went to bed.

One day, about three weeks after the attack, I was at home on the computer looking for information on something, and I heard the front door open, and I heard Rachel say, "Just go in, and I'll be with you in a minute!"

Then a stunning red-haired girl shyly walked into the living room, and she gave a start, and said, "Oh! I'm sorry. Rache' said for me to come in. I sorry if I disturbed you!"

I was about to say something, but I noticed her shortened version of Rachel's name, and that confused me for a moment, and so I got up, and held out my hand, and told her that my name was Alfie Marks, "just call me Afie."

She smiled, and the sun shone a bit brighter there in my living room. Then she looked at her hand in mine, and I let it go, saying sorry, and I asked her if she wanted something to drink. She looked around, and then it hit me she was looking for a booze cabinet! She also had a worried look on her face, and I said, "Oh, no, sorry! I meant a hot chocolate, or something?"

Then my sister came into the room, changed into her at-home clothes, and introduced me to Mary-Louise, "call her Mel", who had moved into the old Winton place.

Rachel explained that, as the new girl on the bus, the bullies had tried to pick on her, but she'd had to make them leave her alone, and she held up her hand, and her knuckles were skinned.

Rachel grinned, and told me that the other girls were very sorry, and apologised for their mistake! Then the girls looked at each other, and burst out laughing.

Then Rachel asked us if we've introduced each other yet, and apologised for not doing it. Rachel turned to the stunning girl, and asked, "So what do you think of my Big Brother?"

"God Rache'", she breathed, "you weren't kidding! He is a hunk!"

I looked at my sister, and she giggled, and Mel followed suit, and the visitor to our home blushed under my scrutiny, and I must have looked foolish standing there, lost for words, because that set them off again, and then Rachel grabbed her hand, and towed her down the hallway to her room, where I could hear them laughing and talking at the same time, both of them.

About time she'd got a friend to come home with her, I thought.

Later as we sat in the living room, Rachel was sitting on the Big Chair. She'd claimed it as hers, and I was happy with that, because I still had 'Old Faithful', as I had christened the couch. I could see her out of my peripheral vision. I found myself doing that more and more when she wore that thin old tee shirt! She looked up from the chair, and put her book down, put her knee up, leaned back, and put her hands behind her head, causing her tee shirt to press against her breasts, and she was bra-less, I noticed, and she said, "So, what do you think of Mel? Is she pretty, or what?"

I looked up, and put my book down, and turned to her, I gasped, because I could see right between her legs, and her panty-covered womanhood was right in line with my eyes. I couldn't speak for a moment, and my jaw hung open. Then she giggled, and told me to answer the question!

She'd gone shopping. Again, I thought, because these panties were new and almost sheer, and I could make out the curls of her dark pubic hair, and the swell of her thin clitoral hood, and her vaginal lips were full, and I could see a hint of her inner lips.

Her nipples grew hard under my gaze, and my breathing became shallow, and I realised I was starting to gasp for breath as I looked at her, Her blue eyes were devilish, and I wondered how far she was going to take this.

"Oh, god, Rachel", I moaned, exasperated, "you make things so hard for me sometimes!"

"Well, I should hope so, I've been trying to for a while now, and you can be so gentlemanly and thick sometimes, it's annoying!" she almost snapped at me.

Then I realised what she was saying, and it all clicked into place. "We can't, Rachel, we're brother and sister, for god's sake!"

"I know that, Alfie! But I told you I loved you, and I meant it! I think I fell in love with you that day when you gave me those flowers! No-one had been that kind to me, and I knew then that as soon as I smelled those flowers that I wanted you!"

Then a steely look came into her eyes, and she told me, "I want you, and I'm giving myself to you, Alfie, whether you want me to or not!"