Chapter 3

This time we did talk about it the next day. Dad wanted the yard raked, so we said we’d do it together.

Once outside I raked a little and helped her shove a small pile into the big bag she’d been holding.

“Bobby?” she said.

“Yeah.”

“How did I know what to do last night?”

“What do you mean?”

“I knew what to do to make you cum,” she said. “And you obviously knew what to do to make me cum. I never came that hard in my whole life! I know you’ve never done that to a girl before ... right?”

“Never,” I said.

“So how did we know? And how do I know that next Halloween you’ll make me cum again?”

“Maybe the attic is where the ghosts stay,” I said. “Maybe they’re using us to live the lives they didn’t get to because they died so young.”

“That’s ridiculous,” she said.

“Do you have a better explanation?”

“No, but it isn’t ghosts.”

“Okay,” I said. “I have a question for you.”

“Go ahead.”

“Do you think we’ll do anything before next Halloween?”

“No,” she said, right away.

“I know that, too,” I said. “How do we know that? I mean I loved it and I know you did, too, so why don’t we want to do it other times?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “But it isn’t ghosts.”

“Maybe the attic itself has some kind of power. Or the trunk. The trunk was always open when we did stuff.”

“Bobby, this isn’t some voodoo, magic, sorcery.”

“Emily, I love you. You know that. I never once thought about putting my hand in your panties until last night.”

“I wasn’t wearing my panties,” she pointed out.

“And you went to the dance without a bra on. And that was after Mom told you to be sure to wear one! Why did that happen?”

“I don’t know!” she barked. “It just felt right.”

“What do you want to do?”

“Nothing. We have a whole year until we need to worry about it.”

“I thought you said you couldn’t wait until next Halloween,” I reminded her.

“That was last night. Last night I couldn’t wait until next year. Today I can wait.”

“Got it,” I said. “I still love you, though.”

“Of course you do. I love you, too. But it’s regular love now.”

We went on to rake leaves. Raking leaves lets you think about stuff and I thought a lot about what had happened.

Someone, or something, was exerting influence on us. It was only on that one night of the year, but it altered our personalities. No, that wasn’t right. We were still the same people. What changed on that one night was our moral and ethical attitudes. We were still twins, but that relationship altered to one of lovers.

There was only one explanation that made sense.

The house was haunted by the spirit of at least one young man who had left his sweetheart to go off to war, and never come back.

What we were doing was what he ... or they ... wished they could have done. We represented unfinished business to them, most likely because we were already inseparable, emotionally. We were as close as married people get. Well, except for the lack of a sex life.

And that seemed to come into existence on Halloween.

I decided to look into the history of the former residents of our house. I would dig and find more information. Had one of them left on October 31st? Had one of them died on that date?

But, like my sister had said. We had a whole year before we needed to worry about it. I could do research any time.

Another year passed unremarkably. We turned sixteen and there was a big party. Dad asked if Emily was sweet sixteen and never been kissed. She said it was none of his business, but she grinned at him.

“There better not be any boys kissing you,” he growled. “Do I need to go buy a shotgun?”

“Oh, stop it!” laughed our mother. “Your little girl is growing up and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“I suppose you’ll want to start dating, now,” complained Dad.

“Maybe a little,” said Emily. “I can’t think of a boy I want to go on a date with, but maybe I’ll meet one.”

“It’s a small town,” said Dad. “You should have met every boy in it by now.”

“It sounds like you want me to go be alone with some boy,” teased Emily.

“I do not!” he said, firmly. “I’d be happy if you didn’t go be alone with a boy until you’re in college.”

“Not that again,” groaned my sister. “I’m not waiting until college to go on a date, Daddy.”

She did wait to go on a date, almost a month. A guy at school named Dennis asked her out and she accepted. They went bowling. That’s what most kids in town did on dates. Other than park and make out.

She was home on time, meaning ten P.M. Dad waited up for her but didn’t grill her about her date.

I was the one who grilled her.

“What happened?” I asked.

“We went bowling. We had chicken strips at the bowling alley.”

“That’s it? Did he want to park with you?”

“We did park,” she said. She had a little smile on her face.

“Well? Did he try anything?” I was anxious.

“He kissed me,” she said.

“Is that all?” I was really anxious.

“He’s not as good a kisser as you are. Now, go away. I’m tired and I want to go to bed.”

That was it. She made a veiled reference to the previous Halloweens, when she wasn’t sixteen yet and got thoroughly kissed.

The thought of Emily and Dennis, sitting in a car in the dark ... kissing ... made me horny for some reason.

I had to jerk off before I could relax enough to go to sleep.

Summer came and I got a job at the pool. I didn’t have the training to be a lifeguard, but they taught me how to do the water tests and how to put chemicals in the system. I also sat at the front and checked people in. I got to see all the girls in their bikinis, which was cool, but I never felt the urge to ask any of them out. When school started up again, though, tons of girls knew my name and sang out, “Hi, Bobby,” when they saw me in the halls.

I never got the research done and suddenly it was October first.

“What’s it going to be this year?” asked Mom.

“Nothing fancy,” said Emily. “I think we’ll go as Barbie and Ken.”

“Aren’t they girl and boyfriend?” asked Mom.

“No more so than Raggedy Ann and Andy,” said Emily.

“Interesting,” said Mom. “I might be able to mimic one of Barbie’s outfits for you.”

“Okay. That sounds good,” said Emily. “I’ll get out my Barbies and pick an outfit.”

“Bring me several,” said Mom. “I’ll choose the easiest one to make.” She looked at me. “I don’t know what Ken wore. Something summery as I recall. We’ll dye your hair blond.”

“Dye my hair?” I goggled.

“Me, too,” said my sister. “I need to be blond, too.”

We waited to dye our hair until the day of the Halloween dance. That was because Emily had this idea to wear masks over our eyes so nobody would know who we were.

That was silly, of course. Everybody knew who we were the minute we walked into the gym.

I had helped Emily get dressed. Again, we took our costumes up to the attic. She had a whole box of tissues and one of Mom’s bras. I stuffed the bra with tissues, sliding my fingers over her breasts as much as I could. She never said a word, but she kissed me once it looked like she was Dolly Parton.

Mom had done her hair all up, in what she called a bouffant hairdo. Emily was wearing a pair of Mom’s old high heels. They had really tall heels on them and with her hair up, my sister looked like she was six feet tall. She had a short skirt on, not quite a mini, but at least four inches showed above her knees.