Chapter 10

When I got home, I said hi to my parents who sat in front of the television, then made a quick omelet and tossed it town with a whole litre of full-fat milk, then went to bed and fell asleep the second my head touched my pillow. I was absolutely knackered when I got into bed, and felt I was going to sleep soundly all through the night, yet I awoke at 02.11 AM feeling as well rested as if I had had a full night of sleep and a cup of morning coffee.

‘Motherfucker!’ I swore quietly to myself and pounded my pillow. I tried going back to sleep, but it was impossible. Another night with five hours to kill before I had to go to school. Groaning, I turned on the light and sat up.

I leafed through chapter 7 and 8 in my chemistry textbook, but sourly determined that it was very basic material. I hadn’t taught chemistry for more than a couple of years in my previous lifetime, because I had always liked biology and physics a lot more. Maybe this time ‘round I would have to study chemistry in greater depth. Yeah, there was no maybe about it, really. I definitely needed to expand my grasp, come to think of it. Polymerase Chain Reaction, the process by which DNA-strings could be amplified before they were sequenced, was something I needed to become an expert at in order to map out the codes embedded in my own genome.

Hey. There was an idea. Maybe I could try to get in on the team that would develop next-generation gene sequencing? Sanger sequencing was developed in the late 70’s and PCR in the early 80’s, so it was already well understood by now - it was all just a matter of shrinking the process so that thousands of snippets of DNA could be sequenced in parallel.

Leafing through my chemistry textbook, I determined I wasn’t going to learn anything new from lower secondary school literature. What I needed was some academic textbooks. I felt a sharp pang of Internet-abstinence. By 1993, the WWW had existed for three years, but it was all very simple still. Could I order textbooks? Nah, probably not. I would have to go through the library or a bookstore. At least I knew exactly which textbooks to get, since I had owned later editions of them when I studied at university.

Frustrated that I couldn’t study and couldn’t sleep, I wanked for about an hour to the images in my mind of Lisa’s petite body under me as I fucked her prone bone, or her face when she almost managed to deepthroat my cock, or how she looked when I finger-fucked her ass. Oh, that sweet little pussy of hers!

I got up at 03.40, put on my slacks and lifted some weights until my sister got up to go to her job. I ran beside her as she took the bike, and then took a detour on the way home just to burn some more energy. Then a large omelet (we were running low on eggs, I noticed) and a coffee, making my mom a cup of brew as well. She was getting used by now, to seeing me already awake when she got up.

“Thank you sweetie,” she said as she took the cup I proffered. “When did you start drinking coffee?”
“Uh,” I said, searching for an answer that would fit, “I ... I have coffee now and then in the cafeteria in school. With milk, it’s quite good.”
“Just don’t overdo it, sweetheart. Two or three cups a day at most, or you get the jitters.”
“Yes mother,” I said, managing to sound so hen-pecked that she chuckled.
“I’m sorry. I’m just not used yet to this new and suddenly very mature young man that my son has become,” she said, and caressed my head. The warm expression of love in her eyes made my own eyes fill with tears and my throat ache.

“Mom, did you register the Lotto ticket and give them your account number yesterday?” I asked when I felt I could trust my voice not to break.
“Of course, sweetie. The money will be in my account on Tuesday, they think. We can go to the bank together and transfer it to your account and Becky’s.”
“Oh, good. I have a favor to ask though.”
“Oh?”
“You see, I’ve decided to buy a computer.”
“Oh? I thought you wanted a Nintendo?”
“No, I can play at Andy’s - I want a computer for school and to get on the Internet.”
“Why do you need a computer for school? We have a typewriter.”
“Just ... trust me. I want to connect to the web.”
“The web?”
“The world-wide-web, mom. As in, the web of connected computers that make up the Internet.” I said patiently.
“Oh - is that what it’s called? We have computers at work that are connected like that - it’s all very confusing to me.” she said and shook her head.
“You should make an effort to learn that stuff mom, I’m a hundred percent sure computers will become very important in your daily work in the next few years.” I said, suppressing a smile.

“I’ll try, sweetie. But what was the favour you wanted to ask?”
“Can you raise my withdrawal limit at the bank so that I can buy a computer on my own? Or better yet, could I have a debit card? Or an ATM card?”
“Oh, um ... Well, I suppose you could, but ... I don’t want you to burn through all your money. Can I trust you to be responsible with it?”
“Mom, I will put nearly all my winnings into my stock mutuals account. There are just a few things I want to buy: A computer, a moped and some textbooks. Maybe some new clothes.”
“Very well. We can do that on Tuesday as well.”
“Thank you mom,” I said, and gave her a hug.

As she was walking out the door, I told her about my plans for going to the movies with Linda that night.
“Linda? But I thought ... Oh, never mind. Be home before midnight, sweetie. Or, do you want me or dad to give you a ride into town, or will you take the bus?”
“We’ll ride our bikes, actually,” I told her.
“I’m glad you are out and about. You know Linda is your second cousin on your father’s side, right?” She said, smiling.
“What?”
“Yes, Charlie - your father is first cousins with Linda’s mother Elisabeth.”
“Oh. I didn’t know we were consanguine.” I tried to determine how I felt about this revelation, but couldn’t tell.
“Con-what?”
“Consanguine - ‘sanguine’ as in having to do with blood. Blood relatives.” I explained.
“Where on earth did you learn that word?”
“Uh, Dungeon and Dragons? I dunno.” I said.
“Well, have a nice evening at the movies, if I don’t get home before you leave.”
“Thank you mom.”

On the way to the schoolbus, I gave some thought to this new revelation. Did I get the incestuous shivers? Nah, second cousins meant we shared ... I tried to calculate the genetic overlap between us ... A little over three percent? Yes, three and a bit. That’s almost nothing - and besides, I wasn’t planning on having babies with her.

Anna and Gunilla were at the bus stop before me, as usual, and were standing with their usual clique of popular girls. I couldn’t see Linda, so I walked over to them and said hi. Warm hugs were exchanged, and I was embarrassed to notice the speculative looks that earned us from the kids around us. I knew the rumors that were going around, after all. Well, they didn’t seem to care about how our relationship looked to other students, as long as I upheld my end of the deal - to deny any and all sexual contact and only admit to being good friends.

The conversation seemed to concern handball tactics and the game the next day, which was apparently the second to last game in this season’s regional cup. Semifinal, in other words.
“So if you win, you’re finalists? What happens if you win the regional finals?” I asked, not really interested in the reply - just making conversation.
“Then we get to play against the other regional winners in the national tournament. First week of August - big camp. I really want to go!” Said Anna.
“How do your chances look?” I asked.
“I’m fairly confident we’ll win the regionals actually,” one of the girls in 8th grade answered (I didn’t know her name). The conversation turned to very detailed tactics that went over my head, so I stopped listening. I didn’t stop looking, though. The weather was still unusually good for this early in May, which meant thin layers of pretty skimpy clothing. Before long, I had to pretend to look for something in my bag, so that I could hold it in front of me.

When Linda arrived at the bus stop, we hugged too, causing even more speculative looks to be directed at me. I pretended not to notice and made light conversation with her for a while, turning slightly away from the other girls.
“Hey, do you know what my mom told me this morning when I told her I was taking you to see a movie?” I asked her.
“You told your mom?” She said and raised both eyebrows.
“Sure - why wouldn’t I?”
“Uh ... I dunno. What did she tell you?”
“She told me you and I are second cousins - your mom and my dad are cousins?”
“What? ... Shit!”
“What do you mean ‘shit’? It’s not like that makes it immoral for us to go to the movies or anything.”
“No?” she asked, hopefully.
“Nah, I don’t mind. Besides, we’re not planning on marrying and having kids, right?” I said with a grin. She blushed - and like I said earlier, her pale complexion made her a formidable blusher. I couldn’t resist the temptation to make her blush even more, so I leaned down and whispered in her ear:
“I’m still not very interested in the movie, though. It’s you I’m interested in.”
It worked.

Then the bus arrived, and from the other direction, Andy came running as usual.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened that day in school. Andy was nervous about his Bowling-date with Cecilia, and I listened to his worries and gave him some helpful suggestions. I wasn’t worried - she quite obviously liked him, and she had been the one who flirted with him in the first place.

I spent the day ogling Linda and flirting with her whenever the opportunity arose, scored 100% on the written chemistry homework-check (and corrected the mistakes in two of the questions), and used our extended lunch break to walk into town to visit the computer store. Much to my delight, they told me that Intel had a new processor called ‘Pentium’, and that they would be available for purchase soon in IBM and HP models. I told them my parents were getting a PC, but that they had asked me to find out what the best model was - and the clerk was really helpful once he realized I wasn’t just there to drool over his merchandise. I told him to put a mid-tier 486-based PC aside, along with all the peripherals, and that my mom and I would come in on Tuesday to buy it, but that I also wanted to to pre-order a pentium-based IBM machine for when they’d be available. He shook my hand when I left.

On the way home from school, I sat with Linda on the bus, and Andy sat with Cecilia. That was a nice change of pace - not because I didn’t like Anders, but because I really wanted him to hit it off with Cecilia. Chatting with the two of them, though, I kept seeing images of a foursome with them and Linda. Damn hormones - could I think of nothing but sex? Was that part of Dr O’s mood enhancement cocktail, or was it just my increased testosterone levels? Was it really this bad last time I went through puberty? Oh well, it wasn’t like lower secondary studies would be all that taxing, and I already had the ball rolling with regard to my physique and future wealth. I just needed to find some university level textbooks and spend half of my spare time studying and the other half pursuing girls.

Linda gave me a quick hug when we got off the bus, and we agreed to meet in 90 minutes by the convenience store to buy some candy and soda to bring to the cinema.

When I got home, I showered, shaved and put on clean clothes, and then talked to my sister over our makeshift dinner of eggs and bacon (mom was working late). We once again discussed investing some of our lottery money in the stock market, and I got the feeling that I was slowly starting to convince her that it was a good idea. When she appeared to lose interest in that topic, I steered the conversation to her friends.

One of her friends in particular - Victoria, or “Vicky” - was an exceptionally pretty girl who had featured prominently in my masturbation fantasies when I was a teenager. She was a Mestiza, and I think it was her father who was a Filipino. I’d developed my fetish for south-asian girls later in life during a solo trip I took to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. I must have spent two thousand dollars on travel and accommodation and almost twice as much on prostitutes during that trip, giving me some of the best visual experiences of my life and a lifelong fetish involving petite asian girls. Vicky was probably the one who got me started along that path though.

One time long ago, though possibly last summer by current reckoning, my family had taken a weekend trip to the west coast of Sweden, and Vicky had come with us to keep my sister company (my parents didn’t want to leave her home alone for three days). Vicky had noticed how much I looked at her and how I always put something in my lap to hide my aroused state, and she had giggled and whispered a lot with my sister before launching what I can only describe as a devious plan to drive me absolutely crazy. At any opportunity she got during those three days, she would tease me by leaning over a table to expose her little bubble butt to me, or pretending to drop her towel when she was putting on her swimsuit, or accidentally rubbing her breasts against me as she leaned over to reach a bottle. My sister had even joined in the torture, and while I had never had an incestuous thought in my life, my hormonal system was in such a state of overload that even she managed to arouse my lust when she exposed herself to me. Those images still flashing through my head with an intensity they hadn’t had in the last twenty five years, I felt myself smiling fondly at the memory as I chatted with my sister over dinner.