Chapter 4

Only one person mentioned that we had gone to the dance dressed like a well-known doll and her boyfriend. That was Tiffany Rogers and we were in biology together.

“We’re twins,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “It was Emily’s idea.”

“I can’t believe you dyed your hair for her,” said Tiffany.

“We’re twins,” I said, again.

She didn’t say anything else.

The rest of our junior year passed as unremarkably as it’s possible to be. Again, Emily and I didn’t touch each other sexually. We still hugged, occasionally, but it was only in circumstances where anybody might have hugged.

Summer came, along with our seventeenth birthday. Dad didn’t talk about whether or not his little girl had been kissed. Instead, they took us out to dinner in Cleveland, at a fancy restaurant. They had wine. We still got soft drinks.

On the way back home Emily held my hand in the back seat.

But that was it.

I worked at the pool again and the girls in their bikinis all flirted with me. I flirted back, but only a little. Two girls, Barbara Hutchins and Julie Simms, asked me when I was going to ask them out. I answered, “Soon,” but only to get them past the check-in desk.

When I told Emily about it she said I should go on some dates.

“One girl has already asked me if you’re gay,” she said.

“I’m not gay!” I yelped.

“You never go out. What other conclusion will people come to?” she asked, reasonably.

“I’m not gay,” I said again.

“I know that,” she said. “If you go out with some girls, they’ll know it, too. Problem solved.”

The next day, Julie happened to be the first of the two of them to get to the pool.

“So where are we going on our date?” I asked.

“They have a skating rink in Baldwin,” she said. “Can you skate?”

“I never tried,” I said.

“I’ll teach you,” she said.

“Friday night?” I asked.

“Perfect,” she said.

When Barbara got there I told her I had a date with Julie this week, but asked if she’d be interested in doing something the week after. She got all bouncy and said there was a movie she wanted to see.

Just like that, I had two dates.

Skating was a disaster. I fell down so many times I knew I’d have bruises all over my body. Julie had a great time, though. She’d put her arm around me and I’d put mine around her. When I fell I inevitably got a handful of Julie’s breast as I went down. She had a nice set and she never complained. I finally stood up for one complete circuit of the rink and Julie said we should celebrate.

Celebration, for Julie Simms, meant making out in the car in the parking lot of the roller rink.

She got her breasts bare for me and it was looking like she didn’t want to stop there when a security guard we didn’t know the rink employed knocked on the window and told us we had to leave. I told Julie I’d been having fun, but I had a curfew and that we had to go home.

My sister told me what was going on after I told her what had gone on.

“Mom told me about this,” she said. “It’s a small town and if a girl isn’t going to college then she needs a husband to support her. Girls are looking for a husband. If she lets you go all the way then she assumes you’re her boyfriend and that you’ll be off limits to other girls. When you graduate, presto, she wants to get married. Some of them even try to get pregnant so you’ll have to marry them.”

“Mom told you that,” I said, stunned.

“Yeah. Tonight, while you were gone. She said she wasn’t worried about you until all of a sudden you started dating.”

“Don’t you find it a little odd that our mother would talk to you like that about me?” I blinked. “She should have talked to me about all that!”

“She knew I’d tell you. She wants me to keep an eye on you and take care of you.”

“That’s her job!” I yelped.

“Not in this house,” said my sister. “In this house it’s my job to take care of you.”

“Yeah, once a fricking year,” I blurted.

“I can watch over you without doing all that stuff,” she sniffed. “Besides, I can’t let you go getting some girl pregnant before we get out of college. I can’t go off to college by myself, Bobby.”

“I’m not going to get anybody pregnant,” I snorted. “If a girl wants to go too far I’ll tell her I have an STD.”

“And if the girl produces a condom and says that doesn’t matter?”

“I’ll tell her she’s crazy and that I don’t date crazy people.”

“Yeah, that’ll work,” laughed my sister.

My date with Barbara went much better. We held hands in the movie theater and she wanted to make out when I took her home, but only for some hot kisses. I guess she wasn’t as desperate for a husband. Or maybe she was going to college. I don’t know. I should have asked her.

I solved the problem of second dates by asking more girls out. It was easy to get dates at the pool.

The problem was that dates are expensive.

Eventually I told everybody that I’d busted curfew on a date with somebody else and I was prohibited from dates for two months as punishment.

That put us back in school before I was “allowed” to date again. My curfew after school started was eight-thirty. I even asked Mom to set that curfew and she agreed.

Mom also got to us early, this year. She’d been taking sewing lessons at a quilting shop in town and they’d been working on sewing spandex.

“I got this idea,” she said. “I can get light blue and black material. I thought of you two as Batman and Bat Woman. I don’t know how to make a utility belt, but we could use fabric paint to draw it on the costumes. The head pieces I can do in black cork. And gloves. I can do gloves with a cuff of black cork. The capes are easy. So? What do you think?”

“It sounds wonderful,” said Emily.

Did it?

Spandex? With painted on belts?

“Batman and Bat Woman never worked together in the comics,” I pointed out.

“Who cares?” said Mom. They’re just costumes for Halloween. I’m not trying to be true to any comic book characters. It’s just for fun.”

“Okay, fine,” I said.

I got my sister away and asked her what she was thinking.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I can’t think of anything. I’m too distracted.”

“Distracted? By what?” I asked.

“Well duh, Bobby. What do you think your ghost’s going to want us to do this year? There’s not much left!”

“I thought you didn’t believe in the ghost,” I said.

“I don’t. Except you’re right. I can’t think of anything else that could make us do what we’ve done.”

“Make us do?” I frowned. “It didn’t feel like we were being forced to do anything.”

“I wasn’t forced,” she moaned. “I wanted to do every bit of it. But why? And why only on Halloween? When I think back on what we did, the memory of it is electrifying! I loved it. And I loved you. So why, if it was that special, don’t I want to do it every night of the year?”

“Because it’s not normal,” I sighed. There. It was out. The thing that had bugged me for years was out in the open.

“But don’t you see?” she cried. “It was normal, for us. It never felt like I was doing anything pervy or wrong. It just felt like I was loving you the way you should be loved, and you were loving me the way I craved to be loved.”

“But you know that nobody else would agree that it was normal,” I groaned.

“So? Who cares? It’s nobody else’s business.” She frowned. “Except the ghost, maybe.”

“So now you do believe?”

“I believe in us,” she said, firmly. “I believe we have something special, something precious.”

“Okay, so why the angst about what the ghost ... about what might happen this year?”

She stood, hands on her hips, and stared at me.

“Bobby. I already know I’m going to want it all this year. I’m going to want everything. I’m going to want what married people want.”

“Oh,” I said. I understood. That was just as firmly in my own mind as it was in hers. I had just assumed she’d be the more sensible of the two of us and tell me that was off the table.

“But we can’t get married, Bobby,” she said. “And if what happens is what I think is going to happen, and we go off to college, then what? We won’t be here the year after that. Does that mean I’ll never feel that kind of love again? I can go without during the year. That’s not so awful. But the idea that I’ll never feel it again makes me want to cry.”

“You’ll feel it again someday,” I said. “You’ll meet a guy and fall in love and get married and then you’ll feel it every night.”

“You’re an idiot,” she snapped. “Nothing could ever feel like what I felt with you.”

“Oh,” I said. I felt my shoulders sag.

“That’s why I’m so distracted,” she said.

“Oh.” I seemed to be at a loss for words.

“Suddenly, what kind of costume I wear this year doesn’t seem to be all that important,” she sighed.

Mom said she had to take measurements to do the super hero costumes. I don’t know what Emily’s session was like, but mine was very personal. Mom wielded the tape like a pro, stretching it against my body here and wrapping my body parts in it, there. When she got to my hips, she brought the tape together right on top of my cock. I was in my briefs only, by order of the seamstress. She stopped, pressing against my penis with the backs of the fingers holding one end of the tape.

“You have been keeping that in your pants, haven’t you?” she asked, casually. She gave a little extra push against my manhood.

“Mom!” I gasped. Apparently the ghost affected people other than my sister and me.

“Well? Em said you’ve been having some issues with forceful girls.”

“My sister spies on me?” I squeaked.

“Your sister loves you,” said my mother. “I do, too. The last thing you need is some clingy, desperate girl roping you before you can fulfill your destiny in life.”

“And what’s my destiny in life?” I asked. Her fingers were still pinching the tape, still pressing against my meat.

“Find the right woman, get married, and give me as many grandchildren as Emily will,” said my mother. She seemed to shake off a daze and removed her fingers.

“And some desperate high school girl can’t do that?”

“Don’t joke, Bobby. You need to get married for the right reasons, not just because some girl needs a husband.”

“I’m keeping it in my pants,” I said.

“Good.” She sighed. “Your father sure isn’t.”

“What?!” I gasped. “Dad’s cheating on you?”

“No, of course not,” she said. She cocked her head. “Well, if he is, then he’s the man in this family that needs a super hero outfit. He’s been hornier than ever. Ever since we moved into this house he can’t keep his hands off me.”

“I’m not sure you’re supposed to be talking to me about this,” I said.

“Why not? You’re a man, or soon will be. You need to understand how being a man can affect the woman you love.”

“So you want him to back off?”

“I didn’t say that,” she said. “I need to get things done, though, and if he didn’t volunteer at the Veterans of Foreign Wars, I might never get anything done.”

“I’ve been meaning to mention that,” I said. “Why does he volunteer there? He was never in the military.”

“He says it’s to honor the young men who lived in our house and who died for our country,” said Mom. “They’re delighted to have him. I take it they don’t have much of a head for business. He’s revamped their books and showed them where they’re wasting money. Now he’s doing home visits with vets who don’t have a retirement plan. He’s advising them on how to maximize their income.”

Now I was sure the ghost was working on more people in the house than Em and me.

Worrying about it wouldn’t stop October 31st from getting here. Mom’s costumes were actually pretty cool, if a little amateurish. The spandex was amazing. As soon as I tried mine on my mother asked me if I still had my jock strap.

“You definitely need that this year,” she said, casually.

Emily wasn’t happy that her bra showed clearly through the tight material. She complained that it destroyed the lines.

“Band-Aids,” said Mom.

“What?”

“Put those cute, circular bandages over your nipples. No bra to spoil the lines of the suit and your nipples won’t embarrass you.”

“Who are you?” asked my sister. “What have you done with my mother?”

“I was young once, too,” said Mom. “And I wanted to wear a risque outfit myself, a time or two.”

“Too much information!” yelped Emily, covering her ears.

“You’re sexy and you know it,” laughed Mom. “Why do you think I insist Bobby goes with you to these dances? You need somebody along to make sure you stay out of trouble.”

I was pretty sure Emily was thinking, ‘If only you knew, Mother. If only you knew.’

“Bobby’s a stick in the mud,” sniffed my sister. “If some boy wants to dance slow with me, Bobby taps in.”

“Good for Bobby,” said Mom.

“So, Band-Aids for my nipples. What about the panty lines?”

“A girl your age showing no nipples might just have on a built-in bra,” said Mom. “A girl your age showing no panty lines is a slut.”

“I’m not a slut,” said Emily.

“I know that.” Mom frowned. “There might be an answer, but I’m loath to discuss it with you.”

“What answer?”

Mom dithered.

“Well, you are seventeen, almost a woman. I suppose it won’t make the Earth shatter.”

“What, Mom?”

“A thong,” sighed Mom. “It will need to be the right one, with just a string across the back. But it will also need to be at least a little modest in the front ... not too thin. I’ll have to take you shopping over in Baldwin.”

Nobody seemed to notice I was standing there the whole time this conversation took place.

I thanked the ghost, silently, in my head.

I hoped things would work a little differently this year. I hoped we might be able to speed things up a little. I hoped Emily would model her new thong for me before Halloween.

But the ghost was consistent.

“Hi,” I said, when she got back to her room. She dumped several bags on her bed. She and Mom obviously bought more than just a thong.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“I was waiting for you. I hoped you’d model your new underwear for me.”

“It’s in that bag right over there, if you want to see it,” she teased.

“I want to see it on you,” I complained.

“And I suppose that’s all you want me to wear.”

“Bingo.”

She looked at the front of my pants. My cock was interested, but not hard.

“You’ll get to see it on Halloween,” she said.

“Don’t you have just the teensiest urge to do things when it isn’t Halloween?” I asked.

“Like right now?”

“Yes.”

“Of course I do.” She came over to me, embraced me and kissed me. It was a sizzler. Then she pushed me away. “But I can control myself.”

“Haven’t I always controlled myself?” I asked.

“Yes, but I think it was the ghost doing the controlling, not you.”

“So now you really believe in the ghost?” I was taunting her, which was counterproductive, if I wanted things to be speeding up.

“I told you. I believe in us. I think the ghost does, too. It feels stronger this year than it ever has. I know the ghost is going to be happy on Halloween. I also know I’m going to be happy. The last thing in the world I want to do is disappoint either the ghost or you, and if we don’t do things the way Mister Ghost wants us to, he may haunt us in an entirely different way. Just be patient.”

She waltzed over to me. It was only five feet but she managed to put a heck of a lot of sway into her hips. She didn’t hug me, but bent at the waist to put her lips right beside my ear.

“Don’t worry,” she whispered. “I’m going to fuck your balls off after the dance.”

She shooed me out of the room.

The ghost allowed her a little further tease as I left.

She reached, found my now rock hard penis, and gave it a little squeeze.

She didn’t kiss me or tease me or make veiled references to Halloween again. It was like the ghost said, “Okay. You sparred a little. Now you just keep training, so you’re ready for the main event.”

“Training,” of course, meant trying to see how quickly I could get hard again after cumming. I masturbated that month like a mad monkey.

I got it down to eight minutes, once, and then decided I didn’t want to risk breaking it before I got a chance to actually use it.

I couldn’t help but wonder if Em was feeling the same stuff. In years past, that wouldn’t have happened until Halloween day. That was the day, in years past, when we took our clothes off in front of each other, or “helped” each other get dressed. This year was different, somehow. This year the ghost was letting me feel things much sooner. If it was the same for Emily, she really was better at controlling herself. I know I stared at her a lot that October. The only evidence that I saw that she might be excited was that she didn’t wear a bra as much as she had in the past. If she was at home, and wasn’t going to be seen in public, she went without a bra. I saw her nipples a lot. They helped me ‘train’ before I slacked off on that idea.

We both knew the ghost was exerting influence on us. There were very overt things that made it clear the ghost was going to have his way with us. He wanted us to think about that, to be excited, to be in a high state of anticipation. What we didn’t realize was that there was something he didn’t want us to think about.

Not once before October 31st did either of us even think about condoms.

I saw the costumes in Mom’s sewing room, but they were just empty shells, very two dimensional in a three dimensional world. Emily tried on her costume, of course, but I wasn’t allowed to see her in it. Actually, I suppose she suffered the same frustration when Mom had me try on my costume. Assuming she was hot to see me in it.

When I tried on the body suit part of it the first time it took a little bit just to get into it. It was like trying to put on gloves that got sweaty and then dried out. They’re a little small until your hands stretch them out again. Once I got everything in place, it felt like I was being hugged over every inch of my body. Mom ran her fingertips over my pecs and sighed.

“When did my little boy get so buff?” she murmured.

Hearing my mother use the word “buff” was strange enough, but then she knelt and brushed her hand over my groin, cupping my bulge.

“Yes, you definitely have to wear your jockey strap with this. They’ll kick you out of the dance if you don’t.”

“Mom!” I moaned. “You’re touching me!”

She leaned back and removed her hand.

“Don’t be a baby about it,” she said. “Some day, if it hasn’t already happened, some girl is going to do that to you and you’ll be very happy she did.”

“I was hoping it would be somebody other than my mother,” I objected.

She laughed! She actually laughed, and it was a belly laugh, too. Then, as if she had a switch inside her, she stopped laughing.

“So. Jockey strap for certain, right? Now, let’s see about the hood and gloves. I’m not worried about the cape.”

Halloween finally came. I had almost constant erections, now. Emily still didn’t say anything, but I noticed she was really distracted all the time. She must not have been sleeping well, because she even got detention in school for falling asleep in class. It was old Mrs. Engle’s World History class, which was as dry as she was. She looked like she was in her seventies and every bit of life had been sucked out of her and packed into the lessons she taught. I never met another person who was so lacking in a sense of humor as she was.

Emily had never had detention in her whole life and she was mortified. So I went and stayed in detention with her. I found out later that if the teacher hadn’t been there the whole time I would have gotten fucked ahead of the ghost’s time schedule. She said that on that day, when I came in the room and said I was going to sit with her through her embarrassment, she knew she’d never turn me away as a lover. Not even if she got married.

Of course I didn’t know that, then. All I knew was that she burst into tears and I thought it was because she was so embarrassed for me to see her like that. I kept telling her it was okay, but she didn’t stop crying like Mom had stopped laughing.