Chapter 15

I shook my head. Mom had never touched me there before. If I didn't know any better... No Way.

Well, I guess I needed to start with Les's treatment. Obviously this ointment Mom gave me would do the job better than her lotion.

I knocked on her door.

"Who is it?"

"Dr. Wes."

"Come in, Dr."

I walked in the room. She was still lying on her stomach, a big square under the blankets where her butt should be. "Boy, I'd sure like to get into your box."

"Ha, Ha. You'll be lucky if I let you visit Daisy for the next few days."

"Seriously. How do you feel?"

"I'm OK."

"Goddamnit Leslie, don't give me any bullshit. I just got chewed out for hurting you and I don't want any of that phony shit. How do you feel?"

"I'm sorry. My butt really hurts."

"How? I know I did some major damage with the ruler. Does it hurt inside, too?"

"The big thing is the outside. It stings and burns and it's constant. There's nothing I can do. It hurts to rub it, scratching it is totally out of the question, I'm sure soaking it in the bath would ease the burning but it would sting more. And you've got it covered up with this stupid box, so there's nothing I could do to it anyway. The inside feels more bruised, like when someone punches you on the arm. It's kind of there all the time but I don't notice it until I think about it."

"OK. I think we probably just used some muscles for a different purpose inside. Your body's not used to something coming in that hole."

"Oh, Wes. Don't be so gross."

"Leslie. First of all it's part of your body, so there's no way it could be gross. Second, if I do something to you that hurts, no matter what, I need to know about it and I'm going to take care of it if there's any way I can. I know I haven't been holding up my end of the bargain for the past few years, but I took responsibility for taking care of you when we were both young and I'm not going to back out again, even if I have to force you to tell me when something's wrong."

I saw tear roll down her left cheek. "Les. What hurts now?"

"Nothing you big ox. I just love you more than you'll ever know. Give me a kiss."

It was kind of difficult with her laying on her front, but we managed to come up with a pretty satisfying kiss between the two of us.

I broke it off after a couple of minutes. "As much as I'd like to do this forever, I need to put some ointment on you."

"OK. Just be careful."

It hurt to hear her say that but I couldn't say anything. As much as I'd protest that I'd never do anything to hurt my sister, the fact was the only reason I was in her room at that time was to try to lessen the constant pain I'd put her in.

I eased the bedclothes off her body down to the bottom of the bed. She strrained to look at me. I moved to the top of the bed. "Are you comfortable?"

"You know what? This stupid shirt is drving me nuts. Could you take it off?"

I looked at her shirt. She'd looked so sexy this morning at the top of the stairs with her white shorts and that shirt tied in a knot just below her breasts. I could see how that knot would dig into her now that she was stuck on her stomach.