Chapter 3: A New Sister

No, my aunt isn’t pregnant.

Lara was better than I was at being emotionally positive. Despite our home situation, she had picked up a few friends. She and Lennie (short for “Helen”—which she hated, I learned later) became close friends.

Since Lennie couldn’t come into our house, Lara spent more and more days hanging with Lennie at her house after school. She had plenty of money, apparently. At Lennie’s, Lara got spoiled with ice cream and sodas and actually put on some weight. Which seemed to go on her tits first, damn her.

Lennie also coached her up, to the point where Lara walked on to the soccer team and acquired a bunch of new friends among her teammates.

The benefit for me was a little more privacy for things like reading, and also, ahem, masturbating.

But on warm days, and there were a lot of warm days, I had a different place to read. Without air conditioning, our house could be stifling inside. Luckily, across the whole front of our house was a porch. It was covered by an extension of the roof and attic and supported by four heavy columns. For a little extra privacy, a swath of tall bushes blocked the porch from being viewed from the street, except for the path and steps to the front door.

We had a glider bench out there, a wooden bench on a frame that let it slide forwards and backwards. There was also a traditional wooden rocking chair at the other end. I would use one or the other randomly, adding plenty of cushions for comfort.

(I looked up the climate charts for our city: the average high temperatures from March to November were over 70° with July through September over 90°.)

In the afternoon one hot day, I was reading on the glider when Lennie and Lara appeared, toting a most-welcome camping cooler packed with sodas and ice. Lara asked, “E, can we sit and talk out here with you?”

“I never say no when cold sodas are being shared.”

They brought the rocker over to face the glider, and Lara sat beside me while Lennie enjoyed the rocker. After we all had our drinks in hand, Lara took the initiative.

“Don’t worry about Lennie, she knows everything about us. I absolutely trust her to keep silent about our house and our secrets.”

“I love you, E, and I’m worried about you. There’s no other way I can say it. You’re lonely, and sad, and depressed. I wonder how you get through the day, sometimes. This is no way to live, E. I think you need a better sister.”

“Oh, stop, Lara. I love you too. You’re my favorite sister. OK, you’re my only sister, but still. There’s nothing you can do for me; it’s just who I am, and our situation.”

“E, please, just hear me. I know you and I want the best for each other. That’s why we’re here today. Have you noticed how different I have become these last few months?”

“Well, yeah. You seem happier after you got away from your Debbie Downer sister.”

“Fuck. That is so wrong. You listen to me carefully, E, or I’m gonna take away from you that can of 7-up. I know how smart you are. You must have read, ‘correlation is not causation.’ What is different is I have made friends. And one special friend, Helen Pereira, that dusky princess sitting so prettily over there on our rocker.”

“Helen?”

“That’s Lennie, to you,” she growled.

Oops. “OK, OK, Sorry.”

“We have talked about this, and we reached a conclusion. Lennie’s going to be your sister, too. She’s adopting you. Congratulations, Lennie, it’s a girl!”

Lara produced and tossed a sparkle of pink confetti into the air. They were both grinning like they’d won a raffle.