Chapter 2

For once, all five of the Simpson teens were speechless.

Crap. I just said our last name. Never mind. It’s not our real name. Honest.

Anyway, there we were, speechless. Tom had answered Val’s question in an easy, confident voice, the kind of voice you use when you point to a tree and say, “See that tree? It’s a sycamore. You can tell by the shape of the leaf and those little brown seed balls hanging from the smaller branches.”

That’s not what he said, of course. What he said was, “Not much. Just the kind of stuff you do when you’re out on a date and mess around. At the very most the girls would have to jerk the guys off, and the guys would have to play stinky finger. That sort of stuff.”

“Gee ... that’s all?“ gasped Valerie, finally breaking the silence. Her voice conveyed both consternation and sarcasm.

Tom didn’t bat an eye.

“For that kind of money that’s all. I wouldn’t ask you to do blow jobs and such for a mere five grand. It’s just a little fooling around. You don’t even have to have orgasms, though I pay extra if I can get the boys shooting.”

“Fuuuck,” sighed Rudy. I was astonished. I’d never heard him use that word.

“It’s serious money for fucking,” said Tom, smooth as could be. It was obvious, at least to me, that he knew that wasn’t what Rudy had meant but took the opportunity to put in a little advertisement for his business. “I’d be interested, of course, but I don’t think you kids are ready for that.”

“I would certainly hope not!“ yelled Valerie.

“Nobody’s pressuring anybody, here,” said Tom. “It’s just a simple business offer. You don’t have to do anything. I’m sure I can find other people on the beach to form a story around. I just thought it would be a really good one with five kids in it.”

“But we’re related,” said Tawny, her voice breathy.

“I wouldn’t put that in the story,” said Tom. He grinned. “Unless you say that’s okay. I can sell those stories all day long. People love incest.”

“But it would be incest,” said Sam, finally saying something. Her voice sounded odd ... off somehow. I guess I shouldn’t have thought that was odd, considering the circumstances, but I noticed it.

“Yup,” said Tom, happily. “It’s no big deal. I’ve seen it lots of times.”

“You’ve seen people doing incest?” asked Rudy, his voice unnaturally high.

“Tons of times,” said Tom, waving one hand. “Not only have I seen it, I’ve taken pictures of it. I’ve probably produced and sold fifty or sixty stories about incest. Like I said, people love it.”

“How much for that?” asked Sam. Her voice was even stranger ... eager somehow. I turned my head to stare at her.

“That’s in the fifteen to twenty thousand dollar range, for a group like this,” said Tom. “But like I said, you’re not ready for that.”

“Why not?” asked Sam.

“Samantha!“ squealed Valerie.

Sam ignored her, staring at Tom.

“Well,” said Tom, calmly. “Have you kids already been fucking around with each other?”

There was another of those long silences.

“I’ll take that for a no,” said Tom. “And, in that case, I should probably withdraw my offer completely. The way you were so comfortable with each other’s nudity made me think maybe you were doing other things together, too. But I can see I was wrong.”

What he meant by “doing other things together” was crystal clear.

“Wait!“ blurted Samantha. “I’ll do it!” She had deer in the headlight eyes, but wasn’t too startled by all this to jump into things too far. “The touching, I mean.”

I heard Val taking a deep breath, no doubt to scream, but Tawny beat her to it.

“Me too!“ she yelled. She looked startled. Then she looked around, as if she hoped somebody else had yelled. Finally she looked at me. “But only with Bobby,” she gasped.

It got noisy then. Everybody was yelling and waving their arms around. I finally had to herd them away from Tom and Jerry, making them move by force for part of it. I got them a hundred feet away before I stopped. It was easier to let them wind down than try to shush them, so that’s what I did. I just stood there with my arms crossed over my chest, with what I hoped was a stern look on my face.

Eventually Tawny noticed me and stopped defending herself. Rudy and Sam were next. When Valerie realized she was the only one yelling she stopped as if her vocal cords had been snipped with scissors.

“Now,” I said, trying to be calm and firm. “Let’s discuss this calmly.”

“What is there to discuss?!“ yelled Val.

“I’m kind of interested in why Sam and Tawny feel the way they do,” I said.

Both girls I named blushed and looked guilty.

“Nobody’s going to yell at you,” I said, shooting a meaningful look at Val. She opened her mouth and I held up one finger, shushing her from afar. “Let them talk,” I ordered. Things were already weird enough that it didn’t shock me that she subsided.

Now the two younger sisters looked at each other.

“You first,” said Sam.

“No you first,” Tawny shot back.

“Sam!” I said, deciding it for them. I waited.

You know how they say people hate silence in a social setting, and that somebody will invariably say something to break the silence, even if they don’t actually want to? Turns out that might be right. I waited, and every time somebody else looked like they were going to say something I held up a finger to stop them. I kept looking back at Sam. Finally she caved.

“I’ve wondered what one would feel like, okay?” she said sullenly.

“You two slept in the same bed until you were twelve,” I said. “In all that time you never felt his?”

“Not on purpose,” she said.

I looked at Rudy.

“How do you feel about this?”

“Sheeeit,” he sighed.

“Don’t get used to saying stuff like you’ve been saying,” I counseled. “Dad will tan your hide if he hears that kind of language.”

“Bobby -” I cut Val off before she could say anything.

“You’ll get your turn,” I said. “I think this is important. Everybody should get to say what’s on their mind.” I looked at Tawny.

She looked like she was trying to get smaller at first, but the silent treatment worked on her, too.

“I think yours is pretty,” she finally said.

There was enough looking at each other with raised eyebrows that she felt like she needed to be more clear about things.

“You know ... your cock.”

“Pretty?” Now my voice rose.

“Yes,” she said.

“Why?” I asked. I was using a single interrogative to ask half a dozen questions. I was a little rattled. Part of it was to question her choice of adjectives. Probably a little more was because the word “cock” came out of her fourteen-year-old mouth with an easy familiarity that suggested she’d used it a few thousand times and I wanted to know how that had happened. Then there was the part about why she’d be interested in my cock at all.

“Well, Daddy’s is dark brown and shriveled up most of the time. And Rudy’s is kind of pink and skinny and reminds me of a worm. But yours is long and thick and the way it sways when you walk is ... well ... pretty.”

I blinked several times. Apparently we didn’t ignore each other’s nudity as much as I thought we did. I looked at Val.

“It’s crazy!” she yipped.

I looked back at Rudy.

“Can you control your mouth, yet?” I asked.

His eyes looked a little glazed.

“All I can think about is the money,” he said. “It’s a thousand dollars apiece! And that’s for just the little stuff!”

“So, me jerking you off doesn’t bother you?” asked Sam, hopefully.

His eyes cleared. He looked at her.

“I guess not,” he said.

“I saw you doing it one time,” said Sam. “It looked like you were trying to hurt yourself.”

“It doesn’t hurt,” said Rudy, completely comfortable talking about this with his twin. I shouldn’t have been surprised.

That brought to mind what Tom had said about us guys playing stinky finger. I’d never called it that. More to the point I’d never gotten to play that game. The most I’d gotten away with on a date was putting my hand on a girl’s breast outside the clothes. I looked at Val, for some reason.

“I know you don’t want to do this but, for the sake of argument, if we did, and I had to put my finger ... um ... in you...” I stopped. “I guess I’m asking if you’re a virgin.”

“Of course I’m a virgin!” she yelled.

“He means do you rub off,” said Sam. “He means do we all rub off and stick things up in there.”

“Jeeze, Sam,” groaned Rudy. They might have been comfortable talking about anything as twins, but that didn’t mean they had talked about everything.

“We do,” said Sam, calmly. “We all do.”

“Saaaam!” whined Valerie, sounding years younger than she was.

“Well, we do!” snapped Sam. “We have for years. What’s the big deal?”

“How do you know that?” I asked, interested in her whole demeanor.

“The first time I did it I bled,” said Sam. “I got scared and went to Val. She said it was okay and that the same thing happened to her. We both decided Tawny should know what to expect.”

“Wow,” whispered Rudy.

“Did you ever talk to Bobby about jerking off?” asked Sam, curiously.

“Uh uh,” said Rudy, shaking his head. “I learned to do it accidentally, in the bathtub.

They all looked at me, for some reason. I felt heat in my face, but it was much too late to obfuscate.

“It’s easier for guys,” I said, hoping that would be enough. I wanted their attention off of me. “So what do we do?”

“It’s a lot of money,” said Rudy.

“That isn’t the point!” said Val. “It’s wrong!”

“Why?” asked Sam. “Why is it wrong?”

“Because everybody says so!” yipped Valerie.

“I don’t care what everybody says,” said Sam. “All I care is what you guys say.” Sam had extra strong family loyalty. Maybe that’s part of being a twin. I don’t know.

“I already said I’d do it,” said Tawny, who was obviously trying to sound brave.

“Me, too,” said Sam.

“It’s a lot of money,” said Rudy again.

“No,” said Val, firmly.

Suddenly they were all looking at me again, like I was the elder of the group. Even Val.

“I have mixed feelings,” I said.

“You don’t want me to touch you,” said Tawny, sounding crushed.

“I didn’t say that,” I said. “I think you’re cute. I always have. The idea of you touching me like that isn’t the problem.”

“Then what?” asked Sam.

“Let’s say we do this.” I looked at Val. “Let’s say that some of us do this. I have a suspicion it will feel good, once we get used to the idea. And if it feels good, that’s going to change things. We’ll think about doing it again.” I looked around. “Or we’ll think about how much he’ll pay us for other stuff. And we might be tempted to do that, too.”

“I don’t think so,” said Sam. “All I want to do is touch Rudy’s and see what it feels like.”

I looked at Tawny. She shrugged. I stepped closer to her.

“What if we do this and he offers us more money if I put my face between your legs. How do you feel about that?“

“Bobby!“ Val’s voice sounded almost hysterical.

It was actually Tawny who calmed her down.

“It’s okay, Val,” she said, reaching to touch her sister’s elbow. “I’m not scared. Bobby would never do anything to hurt me.”

She looked back at me.

“I have dreams,” she said, her voice soft.

“Dreams,” I said.

“Dreams that when I wake up I’m all wet ... down there.”

“Oh,” I said.

“Sometimes you’re in them,” she said.

“And who else is in them?” I asked, suddenly curious about who a fourteen-year-old girl might be interested in ... that way.

“The rest of us,” she said, looking around. “And Uncle Danny once.”