Chapter 2: Cleanliness is next to...

It was a week before my thirteenth birthday. I guess that makes it about a month after that stuff with the doors. For most of that month, Tara and I had gotten on with each other pretty well. We even went shopping together once to look for school clothes; both of us have been getting taller. Mum even let Tara take her credit card, but she did check up on us later to make sure we didn’t go over the limits she’d set. It was cool shopping with my sister and not having Mum trying to tell us what clothes to buy. Parents can be such a drag sometimes. Then that Monday, Tara had been really chirpy and bouncy. She’d hugged me and told me she had something to tell me, but then supper was ready and we spent the evening doing family things so as we went to bed she told me she’d tell me tomorrow.

Then on Tuesday, she came home from school, went into her room and slammed the door shut. She hardly spoke to me the rest of the week but she wasn’t being mean, she just wanted to be left alone. I was wondering if it was her ... you know ... period, but I didn’t ask her. By Friday night she was more cheerful and she went out with a couple of her girlfriends from school. She hadn’t told me her big secret, but maybe it wasn’t that important after all. On second thoughts, her boyfriend, Ray, hadn’t been around all week either. That was a good thing. I didn’t think much of Ray. Maybe they’d broken up! You can always hope!

It was Saturday night, Mum and Dad had gone out with Uncle Stan and Aunty Janice. It was Uncle Stan and Aunty Janices’ wedding anniversary, I don’t remember which one, and Mum and Dad were helping them celebrate. Dan’s football team had no game that week so he’d gone out to a party and we’d been left to look after Angie. Of course Mum had made a fuss before they left and listed out a whole lot of rules for us along with things to do for Angie. Dad just smiled and wrote out the name and phone number of the place they were going plus his mobile number on a piece of paper; then he wrote in big letters: “Rule 0: Think before you act.” Then he stuck the paper next to the phone. Mum’s rules had started with Rule 1: No mess and went up to Rule 20: No boys! I liked Dad’s list of rules better.

We changed Angie’s diaper. It was a real stinky one, so we argued a bit about who was going to do the cleanup. It was that kind of friendly, joking argument you have sometimes when you both know it doesn’t matter that much. We’d both changed smelly diapers before. Finally we had her all clean and put the cream on her bum and a fresh diaper and we put her to bed. I can’t wait until Angie’s properly potty trained.

Tara and I had hired a movie so we made popcorn and sat and watched it. Angie was unsettled and kept calling out so we had to stop the movie a few times and go talk to her, trying to get her to sleep. We couldn’t figure out what Angie’s problem was until finally I said maybe she’s not used to us being here instead of Mum and Dad. I liked that we were spending a nice evening together, just the two of us hanging out. You know, looking after our sister and watching a movie together. It was cool.

Out of nowhere, Tara went all serious and said she had to tell me something. Then she dropped the biggest bombshell ever. She’d given up her virginity last weekend to Ray Staunton. I was all big eyes and scraping my jaw off the carpet. I tried to get her to give me details but she wouldn’t say much except that the first time had hurt a bit, and was over really quick, but the second time was a bit better. She said neither time was special like people say it should be. Then she said Ray had dumped her that Tuesday at school. Turns out, as soon as they’d had sex, he lost interest and wanted to go with someone else.

Tara burst out crying and I held her and my top ended up soaked. She’d been holding it in all week and pretending everything was okay but it wasn’t. I didn’t tell her, but she hadn’t done that good a job of hiding that something was wrong. Tara was really devastated and figured it must be because she hadn’t been any good at, you know, the sex stuff. I wanted to say something, you know, reassuring, but I couldn’t think of what to say. It’s not like I’m an expert or anything, you know? In the end I said Ray Staunton was an asshole. I mean he’d have to be to treat Tara like that, wouldn’t he?

Eventually Tara stopped crying and I even got her to laugh a bit by cracking really bad jokes but making Ray the punch-line. You know, like: “What’s the difference between a deer and Ray Staunton? If you saw a deer on the road, you’d swerve to avoid it!”

After that, we kind of gave up on the movie and sat holding each other and coming up with more jokes like that. By about ten or so, Tara was feeling better and Angie had finally gone to sleep so we decided to call it a night.

I went to get ready for bed while Tara went around the house and double checked that all the doors and windows were locked. The phone rang and it was Dad checking up on us. I told him we were getting ready for bed and he reminded me not to forget to check the doors and windows were locked. I said, “Yes Dad, but that only means the bikie gang we invited over would be locked in here with us.”

Tara had heard me on the phone so she leaned in to listen in time to hear Dad laugh and say for me to tell the bikers he had a shotgun and wasn’t afraid to use it if they laid a finger on his daughters. Tara yelled it was bit late for that as they’d already stripped us nekkid and turned us into their sex slaves. Dad went quiet for a second, but then he laughed and called us scamps. He said if everything was okay with us, they were going to go on to a nightclub and they’d be home a bit after midnight. I said that was okay and we’d see them in the morning.

We finished getting ready for bed, giggling to each other about being sex slaves to a gang of bikers. I don’t know why we’d picked on bikers. The only biker I know is Liz’s dad. He’s like really big, with a beard and tattoos and everything and he’s about the sweetest man I know, except for Dad and Dan of course. But it would be weird, wouldn’t it? Being nude, I mean, in the middle of a bunch of guys with beards and leather and them touching you all over and doing – you know – stuff. But then, if you were their sex slave they might do disgusting stuff to you as well, and maybe make you do disgusting stuff to them. I crawled into bed and wrapped the blankets around me and tried to tell my brain that the movement outside the window was a tree swaying in the wind. My brain didn’t really believe me.

I guess it was only about half an hour later. I was lying in bed, still trying to go to sleep, when the phone rang again. I stumbled out of bed to answer it but Tara got there first. I stood there blinking my eyes in the sudden light and tried to make sense of her side of the conversation. It was all grunts and “I know who you are” and “What?” and “No they’re not here” and “Yeah” and “Really?”

Finally she looked at me and said, “Dan’s drunk. He’s completely wasted. It’s his friend Steve. The cops shut down their party. Neither of them can drive, they tried to walk home. They’re in that little park on Westbury St. Dan laid down and went to sleep. He was hoping one of our parents could go and fetch them.”

“Wow!” I said. “Um ... give him Dad’s mobile number.”

Tara read the number to Steve then listened and said okay. Steve put her on hold while he dialled Dad. After a bit she and Steve talked again. It turned out Dad’s mobile was giving a “not switched on or out of area” message. She looked at me for a second and then said for Steve to stay there and we’ll come and help get Dan home.

I looked at Tara like she was crazy, but she shrugged at me and said Dan needs our help. I couldn’t argue with that so we went to get dressed. I pulled jeans and a sweatshirt over my pyjamas, put on my socks and shoes and I was ready. I met up with Tara back in the kitchen, and then I saw Dad’s bit of paper by the phone with his Rule 0 in big letters. I said, “Wait, let’s think about this.”

“Okay!”

“How can we help Dan when we get there?” I said.

“He’s too big for us to carry him,” said Tara.

“I know!”

“What about the old shopping cart with the big wheels?” said Tara. “We could put him in it and push him home.”

“Is it strong enough?”

“Should be,” said Tara. “Remember when Dan put the two of us in it and pushed us round the back yard?”

“Oh yeah, okay, we’ll take the shopping cart.”

“What else?” said Tara.

“Angie! We can’t leave Angie alone in the house,” I said.

“We’ll have to take her with us.”

“In the stroller!” I said.

“Yeah!”

“What else?” I said.

“We should leave a note in case The Parents get home before we get back!” suggested Tara.

“Good idea!”

So I went and bundled up Angie, turned out she was awake again anyway, and put her in the stroller while Tara wrote a note. Then Tara phoned Dad again but still couldn’t get through, so she left a message on his voice mail.

Then I thought of something and went and looked in the side table on Mum’s side of the bed. Sure enough, her work phone was there. I grabbed it. We weren’t supposed to touch it except in emergencies, but I figured, if we had an emergency while we were out, it could be handy. I showed it to Tara and she dialled back Dad’s number and left another message saying we had Mum’s work phone with us. Then she looked at me and asked if we were ready. I said yeah, so we headed for the door.

Then I thought of something else, so I ran back to the phone and went through its memory to find Steve’s number. I phoned him and asked if he and Dan could meet us at the bus stop this side of the park ‘cause we didn’t want to walk through the park on our own at this time of night. He said no problem, so I hung up and we left. We made sure to leave some lights on so it looked like someone was home and locked the door. Then we headed up the street, me pushing Angie in the stroller and Tara pushing the shopping cart.

It was weird to be out walking the streets at that time of night, especially with Angie in the stroller. It wasn’t that scary. We don’t live in a bad area and the streets were pretty quiet. A few cars went past. One car had a couple of guys leaning out the windows. They whistled at us – well they whistled at Tara – but I don’t think they knew what to make of two girls with a cart and a baby in a stroller, so they drove off.

Finally we made it to the Westbury Street bus stop and there was Steve sitting on the bench and there was Dan throwing up into the gutter. When we got close, we realized their clothes were all wet and slimy and smelly. It turned out they’d fallen into the pond in the park. That pond should have Health Hazard signs around it. Steve was clearly drunk but still mostly with it, but Dan was completely wasted.

Now I understand why some people use the phrase “legless” to describe someone who had too much to drink. We waited ‘til Dan stopped throwing up, then Steve helped us get Dan onto the cart. His legs hung out one end and his arms and shoulders and head hung out the other. It looked pretty funny, but it worked.

Dan went to sleep with his head on the handle of the cart. Tara and I talked with Steve on the way back but Steve was paying more attention to Tara than me. I finally figured out that Tara and Steve were flirting with each other so I got quiet and pushed Angie without saying anything.

I like Steve and normally he’s pretty nice to us when he comes round to the house, but with all the booze, he was being a bit ikky with Tara and saying stuff he normally wouldn’t say to a fourteen year old. At least I hope not, he’s twenty years old for crying out loud. He might have done more but his clothes were wet and slimy from the pond and he stunk of booze and slime so when he tried to put an arm around Tara she just went “Eeew” and pushed him away. That made me feel better.

All that stopped when we got to the big hill. It was just as well Steve was with us ‘cause it took all three of us pushing to get Dan up the hill. Finally we made it to the top, then we were at Steve’s place so we said goodbye. Steve tried to kiss Tara goodbye, but she pushed him away.

It’s downhill from there to our place, so after leaving Steve, it was easy to get Dan home. Except that Dan suddenly woke up and lurched to the side and threw up. That would’ve been fine, but that was exactly where I was, so his sick went all over me. It was pretty gross! I mean, I’d had Angie throw up on me but that was only a little bit. This was lots and lots and it stunk of beer and it was all up and down one leg of my jeans and all over one arm and down the side of my sweatshirt. Eeew! Tara just laughed at me. In the end, I laughed too. I mean, what else could I do?

We got back to the house and it was exactly the same as we left it, so clearly The Parents still weren’t home. Tara took Angie in through the front door; she was fast asleep by then. No way could Dan and I go in there given the state we were in, the mess would’ve gone right through the house. So I pushed Dan around the back where we have a door straight into the laundry. I woke Dan up by slapping his face and shaking him a bit. Then I tipped him out of the trolley and tried to help him stand up. He got halfway up then fell over with me underneath. Did I mention that Dan is twice my size? I wriggled around but I could hardly move. I started giggling. I was basically spread eagled, flat on my back. Dan was sprawled all over me.

I heard Dan murmur, “Hey babe!” Then he shifted his head and kissed me on the side of my neck, just under my ear. Then he kissed the side of my jaw.

I felt a little shiver go through me. That was weird. I figured he didn’t realize who it was, so I was saying “Get off, Dan! You’re heavy! It’s me, Bec! You have to get up!”

Dan shifted so his face was just over mine. His breath stunk of beer and puke. I could see his eyes trying to focus on my face. “Bec? What’re you doin’ in my bed?”

“We’re not in your bed. We’re in the back yard. Now get off me!”

He peered around, and then started to struggle his way off me. All his weight pressing down on me, then moving around on top of me, was making weird tingling sensations run through me. My nipples seemed hyper sensitive ‘cause when his hand brushed over my chest I felt this jolt go through me. I lay still, staring up at Dan, trying to figure out what was going on. I could feel my heart thudding in my chest. My whole front felt flushed, from my face, right down my chest, through my tummy and even further down. Dan was completely oblivious to whatever was going on with me and kept trying to get up. Finally Dan was on his hands and knees hanging over me. Then he sat back on his heels. I kept lying there for a second, trying to figure things out, but my brain was all fizzy and nothing made sense.

Finally the cold ground under my back reminded me what I was supposed to be doing, so I clambered to my feet and looked down at Dan kneeling on the ground. I grabbed his arm and looped it over my shoulder so I could help him up. He was covered in pool slime and vomit and spilled beer and who knew what else but I ignored all of that because he was my brother and he needed my help. By the time he was standing up he was swaying like a tree in a storm. I couldn’t hold him like that so both my arms went around his waist and I hugged him close to me and we kind of shuffled towards the back door to wait for Tara to open it for us. He still stunk but I kind of ignored that. It was more important to hold Dan up than worry about my tortured nose.