Chapter 7

Jeannie’s turn:

It’s like working a jigsaw puzzle. You dump all the pieces on the table and with some effort, a picture comes together.

That happened to me. I’m in love in the most severe and permanent fashion.

One big piece was The Guy. He had to be smart, reasonably good-looking, but not full of himself. He had to be kind to others, and he had to see me as I am and LIKE me that way.

Second piece was me. I had to get past that stage that I saw in most of my friends – boy-crazy. There’s a range there. Some, like Danielle, are quiet about it, mooning, as Grandma says, over one guy after another, a bit too shy and bashful to do anything, all the way to the other extreme, my almost former friend Reena who’s got to the ‘grab him by the dong and drag him into the bushes’ stage.

I watched all that. Had some thoughts I entertained about various boys in middle school and a few of the high school guys I knew. I got a few, actually a lot of, if you count right, indications that I was an acceptable choice, but I decided that I didn’t want to be a choice, I wanted to be an imperative, and I guess I should point out that I LOVE the English language and my vocabulary comes from reading a LOT of books and often gets negative comments from people who just don’t like multisyllable words.

But yes. Imperative.

Somewhere in the last year, the pieces of the puzzle started to get pushed into place. My friends would come over for pool parties last summer and THEY started making comments about Johnny.

MY brother.

Yes, he’s my brother and just maybe I took his looks for granted but when a girl you go to school with every day and with whom you’ve speculated about boys’ looks says, “You know your brother’s kinda hot,” you just might reassess.

So yeah ... good looking. Not over-athletic. He plays soccer and he likes to swim and fight with me over the trampoline, so he’s not even a bit fat, but he’s not looking like the product of one of those workout supplement commercials, either, and he’s got beautiful blue eyes.

But he’s my brother, but something must’ve snapped when Little Miss “Not Mister Right, Mister Right NOW” Reena put the actual moves on him, I decided that I need to take an active role in steering him away from predators (like Reena) and substandard females, several of which he’d commented about from his age group as well as a couple from MY age group and those in the two and a half year gap between us.

So I started telling him that they were not right for him, and the more I identified them to him, the more I realized who was.

Me.

After that horrible incident over the jock strap, I waited patiently for him to give me any indication that...

Don’t get me wrong. I know he’s MY brother, but I’m not Reena and Johnny’s not gonna be the first of many, like Reena’s doing.

Johnny and I are different.

Took me lying there when Mom and Dad took off for a lawyer function at the state capital, thinking about things. Took a thunderstorm to give me the saddest tiny excuse to go get in his bed.

And the rest is history. History, like Caesar marching into Rome in triumph. The Big Deal.

One night! All those terrible, nasty, forbidden things people talk about? Johnny and I did ‘em with each other and it was passionate and glorious and ecstatic and satisfying and he told me that we were in love and that it meant forever.

And now we’re riding back from breakfast in the middle of a Sunday morning and we’re still in love and I know that when we get home we’re gonna make love again and again but this afternoon Mom and Dad come home and...

“How do we do this, Johnny? With Mom and Dad.”

“Well, I don’t think that walking into the living room holding hands and telling them we are a permanently mated pair is a good idea. Not today, anyway.”

“I’d almost do just that. Get all the yelling over with.”

He shook his head. “I’d get to find out what one of those military boarding schools look like...”

“They wouldn’t...”

“You’re their daughter, my little Jeannie love. A delicate flower of purity and grace. I’m a teenaged boy. You’d be innocent and I’d be the sex-crazed pervert...”

I sighed. “I know. Mom explained a lot about how dads are about protecting their daughters. I think she did it to kinda guide my own behavior, but I understand.”

“Yeah...”

“But I LOVE you.”

“We can love each other just like we always did.”

“But since last night ... Not just sex, Johnny. There’s more ... closeness. I don’t want to stop.”

“Me neither. Believe me. My goal is for us to forever have each other.”

“You mean it.”

“I do not lie to my love.”

“So...”

“We maintain a proper appearance of a brother-sister relationship. They’re used to us getting along well together, like the other day with the kayak. Like hauling your friends around, the pool thing ... We keep doing that.”

“And if there’s a chance I can get my arms around you, I’m gonna take it.”

“We have to be very careful, Jeannie. It would be awfully difficult to explain to Dad why I was swappin’ spit with my sister...”

“Ewww! That’s so horrible when you say it like that.”

“You know what we have and I know what we have and we know that when we ... well, it’s spiritual, but anybody but us would roll back to pure animal lust as an explanation, at least for me. You, you’ve been seduced by your intimidating older brother...”

“It’s true, you know. You forced me to beg my way into your bed...”

We bumped into the driveway. Johnny parks off to the side to allow Mom and Dad to put the newer, more expensive cars in the garage.

We unlocked the door and went inside. I grabbed his hand.

“What?”

“You know what.”

“I didn’t want to push you...”

“Just for future reference, YOU don’t have to push me. Like this morning when you kissed my neck, I’d’ve screamed if you didn’t. I’m yours. You’re mine. ALL of you.”

When I’m naked and he looks at me it’s almost like he worships me. When I see him naked now, he’s my funny, capable, exciting lover.

And we do love. Many ways. God sure gave male and female some interesting things to do to each other. I’m certain that won’t come up next Sunday when we go to church. We have discussions in Sunday School, but I’m pretty sure ‘doin’ your brother’ is still on the no-no list.

But this late Sunday morning, I DID my brother. He did me right back. We did each other, stopped, savored the feelings afterward.

“I don’t wanna stop this, Johnny...”

“We’ll find ways. I promise.”

“Now I understand about that condom on the island.”

“We don’t need condoms,” he said.

“Thank god,” I replied. I played with him. Half hard. A few tugs and a nibble or two, during which he abused my kitty, and he was hard. We were coupled up tight again.

Experimenting.

“Sit in my lap and see if we can do it like that.”

“Which way? Facing you? Or...”

Both ways work, you know. Facing my Johnny, this is obviously a lovers’ position. Backed up to him, well, I still love him, but there’s a certain idea of naughtiness. I’m thinking, a dress, panties pulled to the side, pulled off and in my purse, or no panties from the start, and all he must do is unzip...

“We need to explore how much we can do with clothes on.”

Because sitting in his lap WORKS.

Another last shared shower before we get dressed and wait on Mom and Dad.

He’s the easy part of the ‘clothes on’ equation. Unzip. There it is. I’d have to wear a skirt. I might start wearing skirts more often.

I don’t think we looked guilty when we went out to greet Mom and Dad.

We helped them with the bags – actually, carried all their bags in, talking about our respective nights.

Oddly, “Johnny did me silly” wasn’t part of the conversation. Apparently we had a restful time watching movies and reading.

That night as we were getting ready for bed, I whispered to Johnny, “don’t EVER lock the bathroom doors again.”

John’s turn:

I didn’t, ever again.

I was lying in my bed, going over events in my mind, toying with the idea of a quick jerk when the bathroom door opened and Jeannie came in, closing it behind her to hide the nightlight that stayed on inside there.

“Shhh,” she hissed.

“You’re NAKED!”

Soft giggle. “And you’re NOT! And you should be.”

“This is too risky...”

“I heard Mom and Dad ... you know ... They’ll be sound asleep afterward. It’s OUR turn. We can do it soft and gentle and we don’t leave a mess.”

Boy, I’m having conflicting thoughts. Last night for the first time, I had sex. Wonderful, beyond everything I ever imagined, sex. That’s a plus. Minus? It was with my sister. Plus: She wanted it, initiated it. Minus: I’m the older brother, supposed to be more mature, more sane, protective. Plus: It wasn’t just about getting various parts diddled. I love her. She loves me. Minus: If we get found out, I can’t imagine the disaster. Plus: She wants it right now and she’s delightfully nude.

So what do I do? Toss the covers back, strip myself, meet her lips with mine, crazy hands savoring the fine female body, my fingers gauging her ... hot, wet, and she’s pushing me back onto the bed, mounting me.

“We need to be quiet.”

“I know,” she said. “I love you and this is the fulfillment of loving you.”