Chapter 1: Colin and Colleen - The Sibling Rivalry (Charlie for now)

There was a buzz around the yard. Something about the party was getting peoples’ attention. It seemed like everyone was talking to someone, except me. This went on for about fifteen minutes, then my little sister-in-law walked up with a cheesy smile on her face.

“Take me for a ride, Colin. You haven’t given me a ride in your Challenger for so long. You know I love that car. Come on. Let’s go.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me up. I figured what the heck. I’d only had two beers, and we were out in the country at her parents’ place. What harm could it do? I stood, and flipped the keys to her.

“You drive me, instead. Let me go tell Connie we’re going for a bit.”

“No! No! Colin. It’s OK. I told her I was going to talk you into taking me out for a bit. It’s fine. Come on. Let’s go.” We did, holding hands, go to my car. I opened the driver’s door and put her in. At five four, she was just tall enough to get the clutch all the way in and see over the dashboard. I thought it was funny, but I carried a pillow in the back for her. Even though that was probably only the fourth time she’d used it, I always had it back there for her. I thought it was important. Little did I know.

After she’d been driving a while I said to her, “Colleen, we better head back.”

“No, Colin, we need to go to your house for a bit. We need to talk for a couple minutes. I need to tell you something, then we can go back. OK? You know I’d never do anything to hurt my favorite brother-in-law, right?”

“Colleen, you only have one sister.” Something was fishy. This situation was ... Different. Colleen and I had been close ever since I started dating her much older sister Connie, about 5 years ago. She was eleven, then. She’ll be, darn, come to think of it, she’ll be 17 in a month or so. I need to get her something nice for her birthday.

She got off the bypass, headed out west into the hills, and pulled into the gate of our house, hitting the clicker on the visor to open it, then pulled down the driveway and into the garage. The door went up, we pulled in, the door went down, just like it always does. Why? Why did she pull inside instead of just parking in the front and leaving it there until we went back to the party? Little did I know.

“Come on, Handsome. Let’s get a drink and go outside on the patio. Beautiful day.” She mixed up a gin and tonic for herself, a bourbon and seven for me, in plastic glasses, and outside we went. It was a beautiful day.

“Sit, my B.I.L. and relax. There you go. OK. This is really hard to say, Colin, but now that you are safe, and here, and I can take care of you, you need to know that ... Well ... Connie was caught in my parents’ bedroom with Gary a few minutes ago.” My face must’ve turned red. “Please, Colin. Please relax. It’s both worse, and better, than just that.” She moved over to me, stood in front of me and held my head to her stomach. “Just relax for a second, and know I love you. OK?” I nodded, but the tears were starting to form. She looked down at me. “No, Colin. Don’t cry for her. She’s not worth it. She was leaving you for him. I heard them planning. It was me that caught them. I suspected, but never knew. Now I know, and I’m going to be the bad guy from here on out. Colin, do you love me, in some way? Any way? Do you?” I nodded into her stomach again, and bawled like a baby into her while she held my head against her. “Don’t cry, sweet man. Let her go. She’s not worth your tears. Neither is he.” I put my arms around her waist and screamed.

She held my head to her. Tightly. She didn’t want me moving. I complied. She was afraid I’d do something terrible. She held me tight. I complied. She was afraid I’d get back in that car with my Kimber and kill them both. She held me to her core. Very tightly. She rocked me back and forth, comforting me. “No bad thoughts. Just hold me and snuggle your little sister.” I complied. I stopped the sobbing. The tears dried. I just shook my head in wonder. “Come. Bring your glass. Walk with me, Love.”

I’ve always had a thing for redheads. Colleen was a beautiful girl. She had very red hair. Small, at five four, she was shorter than her sister’s five six. She had grown into a beautiful ... Face it, Chuck. Colleen is a woman. A very pretty young woman.

We walked around the field, on a walking path I kept cut, just for this purpose. “Colin, I love you. I always have. I’m afraid for you. I don’t want you to go into a depression. I don’t want you to get even. I don’t want you to do anything rash. I’m sorry, but they deserve each other. I’ll tell you now, they have been planning. I heard today. This is not a today thing.”

“Did you see them?”

“Colin, I love you. Please understand that. I love you like she never could. She loves Connie more than she ever loved Colin. She loves Connie more than anyone or anything. Whatever she does, whoever she does it with, is just the next person she hurts. Colin, I have pictures and I have a video of them talking and ... I was in Mom’s bathroom. They didn’t see me.” I held my hand out for her phone. “No, not yet. I told you I loved you. You can’t see them yet. You’ll kill someone. Wait. Please, Love. Please, Colin. Trust me.”

“I trusted your sister.”

She stopped and looked at me with a look of disdain, fear, anger, and despair, all rolled into one. I’d never seen a look that confused, tortured, and hurt, and to think of it, I haven’t since. I realized I’d just hurt the person trying to save me from myself.

“I’m sorry, Collie, that was cruel. I apologize.” I reached out, pulled her to me, then she started crying. We stood there together, her crying on my chest, me crying in her hair for five minutes before we settled down. “I’m so sorry, Collie. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’m so mad right now, and you are doing nothing but trying to help. I’m sorry, Baby.” She shivered. “I’m so sorry. Please forgive me, Honey.” She shivered again, then nodded. She pulled back a little, and looked up.

“Colin, I love you. Don’t ever compare me to her. Please. It will kill me. I hate her for hurting you. I hate him for breathing. I was never like her. I will never be like her.”

I pulled her in again. “Come on, let’s go back to the house.” My phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket. Connie.

I handed it to Collie. She answered it. “Colin Cranston’s phone, Not The Whore here, can I help you? (Pause.) No. (Pause.) No. (Pause.) Not no, but hell no. Connie, I have pictures. I have a video with sound recorded of you. (Pause.) Yes, when you said that I got it on record. (Pause.) He won’t see it or hear it until I take him to see Jeff tomorrow. (Pause.) No. I’m hanging up. Bye.” She thumbed it off. “She wants to talk. I told her, ‘No’. I’m not going to apologize for this, Love, but I’m in charge now. She’s not. You can have your life back as soon as she’s out of it. Do this for me. You’ll be glad later. Do you love me?”

“You know I do, Sweetheart.” I could see the shivers as her shoulders shook and the goosebumps on her skin.

“Trust me. Please, trust me. I know exactly what needs to be done. I will tell Jeff everything I want, and everything you need. You will have your life, your fortune, and your freedom back. And with your permission, Colin, Love, I will have you.”

“Colleen, isn’t it a little early for that?”

“No, Mister Cranston. I’ve been in love with you for almost six years. Did you have one of those nuptial things with her?”

“Yes. A prenup? A prenuptial agreement? Yes. She’s going to be really pissed when she reads paragraph eight again. She laughed at the time. That is going to be a mood killer at the divorce proceeding.”

“Why is that?” Collie, was still looking up at me. I wiped her tears with my thumbs.

“She was supposed to get two million, if we found we were incompatible and couldn’t work things out. Paragraph eight basically says if she cheats, commits adultery, or leaves me without us working on our problems, if any, she gets her car, her jewelry, except her wedding rings, her clothes, all of which have to be removed, and ten thousand dollars in cash. I had them do that so she wouldn’t have an excuse not to leave immediately. It was all a lark. I never, ever, thought that paragraph eight would be the one. Thank God, she didn’t have her IUD taken out. We had talked about it, but she said she wasn’t ready. That makes more sense now, too. Shit. Oh, my Lord, that would have been a mess for her. Paragraph nine stipulated that if there were kids in the marriage, and paragraph eight was invoked, she got visiting rights. Every other weekend and three weeks in the summer. She read it. She signed it. She knew.”

“Oh, my, what a stupid, silly sister I have. She threw you away, Colin. I’m here. I want you. I swear on my life, my soul, that I will be everything you need from this day forward. Paragraph 8 and 9 can be paragraph 1 and 2 for all I care. I’m yours. I promise. I’ll finish school and I am yours. I’m being presumptuous, but I can never go back to live that house. Hang on.” She used my phone to call her mother. “Mother, Hi, Colleen. (Pause.) Well, she finally did it, huh? They’ve been at it long enough. (Pause.) You did? Oh, my. What did Dad say? (Pause.) ‘Only a matter of time’, huh. Wow. (Pause.) Oh, Yeah! (Pause.) No, I’ll be home in a bit. Need some clothes for the weekend at Jenny’s. (Pause.) No. He’ll be fine. He’s a big boy. I’m sure he’ll find someone else better suited to him. Hell, he can buy whatever he wants, anyway. (Pause.) Oh, hell, yes. Way too easygoing, and she’s too highbrow for him. She needs that country club crowd to be happy and he’ll never really fit in there. (Pause.) Oh, I’m sure they’ll be happy together.” She snickered. “OK, Bye.” She thumbed the phone off. “Fucking Bitch and the Fucking Bastard. They knew. They fucking knew, Colin! Take me home to get my car and some clothes. You can drop me off and wait for me down the block. I don’t want you near them. They don’t need to die yet. Fucking hell.”

We walked back up to the house. She shook her head every minute or so. I took another sip of my drink and pitched the rest out into the hay. She did the same. This was a really bad day to be drinking. At the house, she got us each a water out of the bar fridge, and sat me down in the kitchen at the end of the table. She sat in my lap and handed me one of the bottles. With her arm around my neck, she hugged herself to me, then kissed my cheek. “Keep me. I want to be Colin’s girl. I mean that. Forever. I know you don’t trust anything or anyone right now, but mark my words. When you are ninety-six, and I’m eighty, I’m going to sit in your lap and hug you. It’ll be me. Guaranteed. Unless you leave me. There is always that possibility.”

I kissed the top of her head. “After today? I doubt it.”

I dropped her off a few houses down. She didn’t want me there. I knew why. She didn’t want me to hear how bad it was if they called her out about leaving or anything. She pulled out of their driveway twenty minutes later, headed toward me. Her car was stuffed. Stuffed.

Pulling up next to me, her window rolled down. “I told them I was taking my laundry to Jenny’s to do it, as well. They thought that was entertaining. Little do they know. Everything I own except my stereo is in this car, and I don’t want it. I’m done, Colin. Follow me home.”

We pulled in to the drive and I went ahead into the garage. I told her to help me with something, then walked into the house, opened the drawer and pulled out a three-button door controller. I told her to use the middle button and the middle door. She did, then we changed the codes on all three doors so Connie’s controller wouldn’t work.

“Help me get my stuff to the back room. I need to get settled in and think about making dinner. We were supposed to eat there, but there doesn’t exist anymore.”

Her phone rang. Her mom. “Hey. (Pause.) No, I’m not. (Pause.) Doesn’t matter. I’m never going back there again. There’s a twenty on my EMPTY dresser you can use to replace the clothes baskets I took. I’m not coming back. Ever. (Pause.) I’ll survive. I’m sure Sonic or Dairy Queen have part time positions open. They always do. (Pause.) What do you mean, ‘Why?’. You people killed Colin. You knew. You knew what she was doing with that bastard. You admitted it an hour ago on the phone. I’m outa there. I have all my stuff that I want. Sell the rest. Give it to my ... Your other daughter. She’s not my sister anymore. (Pause.) Horseshit. That’s my car. The title’s in Colin’s and my name. He gave it to me for my birthday last year, and he pays for the insurance and the gas. You know damned well you’re not taking that. I’m done. You just went too far.” She thumbed the phone off.

My phone rang. Her mother. I handed it to her. “Colin Cranston’s phone, how may I help you. (Pause.) No.” She thumbed the phone off. “Well, that didn’t go well.”

“What’d she say?”

“She told me to get my ass home before they came and got me. I doubt they will, but I’m leaving. Can you feed yourself? Something better than ramen noodles and Vienna sausages?” I nodded. She called her friend Jenny. They arranged for the two of them to spend the evening and maybe the night at Jenny’s Dad’s house, out in the country on the other side of the city. He’s a lawyer. My lawyer, actually. Pool, hot tub, all the amenities of home that I have, so she wouldn’t feel neglected overnight if she had to stay. “Kiss me. A real kiss.” I kissed her softly, with a big hug. “That was nice. I may be back tonight for another one. I liked that. A lot. I’ll talk to Jeff tonight. He’s gonna love this. He hates Connie. Has for a while now. Doesn’t like him, either. Never did. I’ll talk to Jeff about us. I want you to know, the only reason I’m leaving is so they don’t call the cops on you. If I was seventeen, I’d tell them to pound sand and climb into your bed tonight. I don’t want you in jail, though, and they wouldn’t sign a report card for me right now, much less a marriage license. I love you, Colin.”

“I love you, too, Sweetie,” I felt her shiver, “I really do. You going to be OK? Is this the right answer, right now?” I asked. She nodded.

“Yes. Yes, it is. I need to talk to Jeff. About us. About the divorce. About the video and the pictures. All of it. We’ll be fine. I promise. Big promise. Love me and think about me. That’s all I’m going to do. Love you and think about you. I feel like a schoolgirl in love. Oh, wait. I am! Love you, Handsome. I’ll call in a while. Let me know if they show up looking for me.”

I waved as she drove off, with a little bag. She had piles of stuff in the back bedroom. I left it. I doubt she wanted me messing with it.

My phone rang. “Hi, Pumpkin. Didn’t take long to miss me.”

“Dufus, I don’t miss you, and probably won’t for five or ten more minutes. At least not until I get into town. Then? Sure. I’ll miss you. A lot. Hey, I just called to tell you if you want, you can sort and fold my mess in the back bedroom. It will keep you busy and you can think about me.”