There's No Place Like Home 1 "Brother & Sister Erotic Coming of Age" (Extremely Taboo Series) (4 page)

Mary had told them the sofa would turn into a bed, showing them the handle to pull. Peter took the cushions off, and with his own apprehension, pulled at the handle to open the bed. Once everything had stopped unfolding, they saw the bed that was hidden inside the sofa. Jenny retrieved the pillows that had been stored in the bottom drawer and set them on the bed.

"Are we supposed to sleep in the same bed?" Jenny asked.

"I think that is what married people do. I don’t think we have any other choice. It is bigger than our old beds at home, but with the two of us, it might be crowded."

He turned out the light and heard Jenny slide into the bed, pulling the sheet aside since it was still fairly warm in the room. Peter found his way to the bed and got in next to his sister. Jenny put her arms around his shoulders, pulling him close to her.

"I’m afraid Peter. Will we be able to do this?" she asked.

"We have to try. Tomorrow we have to see if we can find work. Now, I think we need to sleep." He offered.

Peter was fighting the feelings he was now realizing. He and his sister had often held the other, but this was the first time they had done it without being fully clothed. Jenny was soft and warm in his arms and he held her close, feeling her against him as if for the first time. She had also noticed the change, peter was only wearing his boxers and she could feel his heart beating inside his chest as she pulled herself against his body. She wanted to continue like this, but thoughts that their mother would find this totally wrong caused her to let Peter go, pulling back to her side of the bed. He also felt the presence of his mother’s guilt, understanding why jenny had let go of him. Peter turned onto his back, allowing his body to slip into sleep.

*****

Peter was the first to wake, the early morning light starting to brighten the room as it came in through the thin curtains on the windows. He was holding Jenny as she held onto him, each seeking the comfort and familiarity of the other in their sleep. Peter lay still, not wanting to wake Jenny. He looked at her softly breathing and was glad they were together, having a chance to sleep in a real bed for the first time in several days. He looked down to find that her nightgown had slid up and he could see her naked buttock as she lay against him. He remembered back to their childhood and bathing together but did not attach anything more to the bare skin now than he had then. It was just part of his sister, but a part his mother had been certain to prevent him from seeing as they had grown older. He felt a pang of guilt about what he was seeing, but did not want to do anything that would wake Jenny. He was also aware of her breast crushed against his chest, firm but strangely soft and yielding at the same time. His awareness was barely conscious, just something else to notice as they lay there together. Peter slowly moved his arm and tried to pull down the cloth that had been covering his sister’s behind, moving it some, but not enough to fully cover her naked cheek.

Jenny felt him moving and awoke, realizing as peter had that they were lying very close in the same bed. Thoughts about what Irene would say coursed through her mind and she quickly let go her hold on Peter and slid back away from him. Even though she wasn’t there, their mother still held them captive to her wishes at some level. As she pulled away, peter got a quick flash of her pubic hair before she pulled her nightgown back into position, not embarrassed, but more for the fact that is how it was supposed to be worn. Jenny looked at peter, now feeling a bit awkward, but slowly remembering where they were and that their mother wasn’t controlling them any longer, at least not directly.

"We should get dressed." Jenny started. She got out of bed and went to the drawer to find something to wear. She had few clothes and what she did have was mostly t-shirts and jeans, with a few pair of shorts. Taking the clothes she decided on, she went into the bathroom and got dressed. Peter followed her lead and both were dressed shortly.

"What now?" jenny asked.

"I guess we have to look around and see if we can find jobs. It’s still early, but we will have to start looking soon." He answered.

Peter folded up the sofa bed and Jenny started putting things away, doing a bit of cleaning and straightening as she went. Both jumped as there was a knock at the door.

Peter opened it and saw Mrs. Simmons standing there, a plate of cinnamon rolls in her hand.

"Can I come in?" she asked.

Peter stepped back, not saying anything at the moment.

"I know you still haven’t had a chance to get to the market to find anything for your meals, so I made some rolls for you. I’m sure it is hard moving into a new town and trying to get settled."

Jenny and Peter looked at each other before she said "thank you, but you didn’t have to do that."

"I know, but I wanted to. The two of you are just starting out and you will find that letting others help you will make things easier. Some day, you will be able to offer assistance to someone else and you will know how good that makes you feel. I’m here by myself now and having someone here to talk to and to help gives me something to do and helps me to pay back those who were here for me and my husband when we first started out."

"Thank you." Jenny stated again. "Can you stay and eat with us?"

"I probably shouldn’t, I already ate, but I do like my own cooking if I say so myself. Maybe just one." Mary answered with a sly grin.

She and Jenny sat at the table, there were only 2 chairs. Peter was sitting on the sofa, although it was close enough to the table that he could be part of the conversation.

"I made some calls last night and there will be someone coming by shortly to see you, Peter." Mary began after she had finished her roll.

"To see me?" Peter asked.

"I talked to the minister and he said he knew someone who might be able to give you a job. He said the man’s name is Mr. Jackson, and he will be coming by around 10. I hope I am not being too intrusive, but you did say yesterday that you wanted to find work."

"Yes’m." was all Peter could say.

"Jenny, I have some things around the house you can help me with if you want. I expect you have washing to do. I have some vegetables that need canning so you can help me with that, Ok?"

"Yes’m." Jenny echoed her brother.

They ate in silence, Mary not able to keep to her limit of one roll, but there were enough for all to be filled.

Shortly after 10 they heard the sound of a vehicle in the driveway.

"That must be Mr. Jackson." Mary said.

Peter was apprehensive, but he followed her out of the apartment to meet with the man who had just arrived. Jenny stayed back, she wasn’t sure what she would do or say.

"Mr. Jackson?" Mary asked as the man got out of his truck.

"Yes. I guess you are Mary Simmons and this must be peter." He stated, offering his hand to each in turn.

"I have some things to do inside, I’ll let you two talk." Mary said, going back into the apartment to get jenny before they went into the house.

"I am on my way to get coffee, would you like to come along and we can talk." Mr. Jackson said to peter as they were left alone.

"Yes sir." Peter answered, looking nervous at meeting someone new.

"Hop in, you can call me Gary."

Gary drove to a local diner several minutes away from the apartment. Peter was looking around the area with curiosity, he hadn’t been able to see much of anything other than his immediate surroundings when living at home in Florida. Inside, they sat at a booth, the waitress coming around and putting a cup of coffee in front of each. Peter had never tasted coffee, but gave it a try as he saw most of the others in the diner with cups on their tables. It was hot and he made a face as he tasted it for the first time.

"Not a coffee drinker, I see." Gary smiled as he noticed peter’s reaction.

"Not much, sir."

Gary was impressed with Peter’s politeness, but offered "We’re pretty informal around here, just call me Gary."

Peter was about to call him sir again, but stopped before saying anything.

"I understand you are looking for work." Gary started.

"Yes…" Peter answered slowly.

"Tell me about what you are looking for. What have you done in the past?" Gary asked.

"I used to do some building back in Virginia." Peter started, adding to the story he and Jenny would be telling anyone who needed to know.

"What kind of building?"

"I worked on houses, you know, building them." Peter answered.

"So you were a carpenter." Gary replied.

"I guess you could say that." Peter continued.

"What did you do, framing, finish work…" Gary asked.

"Umm. Mostly getting things off trucks, carrying boards, cleaning up."

"You were a helper, not a carpenter." Gary said.

Peter was getting nervous, he was afraid he was going to get in too deep and not get a job. "I guess that is what you call it."

"Maybe you should tell me more about yourself so I can get a feel of what you might be able to do." Gary asked.

Peter had to think carefully, he didn’t want to say something too complicated, but it had to be reasonable and believable.

"Jenny and me got married, but both our families hated each other. We figured that if we was married, that would make them get together and things could be better." He started.

"I am betting that things didn’t get any better." Gary interjected.

"No, sir. Things got even worse, my family was mad at me and Jenny’s was mad at her for doing what we did. It made them even madder and we couldn’t stand it, so we took off. We just took a few things and walked to the road and got rides for a while. We ended up in Virginia and decided to try to get jobs."

"Where did you start from?" Gary asked.

"We lived in South Carolina."

"Go on."

"I got a job with the builder, he was working on a lot of houses. I started doing pretty good and jenny got work in a place where lots of women made clothes. We was doing OK and we started feeling better until Jenny got sick. She had to quit her job and she had to take a lot of medicine."

"What was wrong with her?" Gary asked.

Peter looked down at the table, his voice low as he offered "they said it was cancer, breast cancer."

"I’m sorry to hear that…"

"The doctors gave her medicine and it made her tired and sick. She lost her hair and couldn’t do nothing for a few months. I worked hard to take care of her and to pay the bills. The doctors said they fixed her up better’n new, so we was both happy. But, they started asking for their money and I couldn’t work enough to pay them. I gave them everything I had and was working as many hours as I could to try to get more."

"One day, I was home from work and the sheriff came by. He said they sent him to get our things to sell to pay the doctors. We didn’t have much, but they still wanted it. I guess he felt sorry for us because he said he needed to get a coffee. He would come back in 15 minutes, but since he didn’t know what we had, if anything disappeared before he come back, he wouldn’t know it. I didn’t want to, but we put a few things into cases and lit out."

"That sounds pretty hard to do. I am not sure I wouldn’t do the same thing if it happened to me and my wife." Gary stated. "So, how did you end up here?"

"We went to the bus station and bought tickets, this was as far as they went." Peter answered.

"How did you pay for the tickets if you didn’t have any money?"

Peter again looked embarrassed, he was thinking about what to say. "Jenny sold her ring. All we got is what we have in our bags."

"I can hire you as a helper. The work is hard and you will have to do a good job. If you learn, maybe we can teach you enough to move up to assistant carpenter."

"I ain’t afraid of hard work." Peter answered.

"I didn’t think so."

As they sat, the waitress came by to refill their cups. Peter hadn’t had more than the first sip from his, but Gary had finished the cup he started with.

"Gerry, you need any more waitresses around here?" Gary asked.

"You don’t have the legs for it." The woman laughed at the question.

Gary chuckled too, but added "Peter’s wife is looking for something. They have just moved here and are trying to get established."

"Can she waitress?" Gerry asked, directing the question to Peter.

"She hasn’t done it before, but I reckon she can learn." He replied.

"Well, we all had to start somewhere. We really don’t need much more help, but I can square it with Nick." She said to them both.

"Thanks Gerry, I’ll let her know and we’ll see when she can come by to see you."

Gerry continued to fill cups on other tables when Gary told peter "Nick is the owner, but Gerry pretty much runs things around here. If your wife wants to see if she likes it here, tell her about the offer and we’ll see what we can do to get her over here."

Peter didn’t know what to say, he had never expected that people would be this helpful to him and Jenny. "Thanks Mr. Jackson, this is a big help to us."

"No problem. I’ll have Gerry make us a couple of sandwiches for lunch and we can get back to the site and you can get started. I expect a good job from you."

"Don’t worry, I will work harder than anybody, I promise." Peter responded.

*****

Peter got home about 6, the day had been hard but only because he was unfamiliar with the work. He had done enough physical labor in his life that the afternoon hadn’t taken too much out of him. Sure, he would need a few days or more to get fully into shape, but no one complained about the quality or quantity of work he did. He got a ride home from one of the carpenters and would be riding to work with the same man tomorrow.

Peter hadn’t eaten the sandwich that Gary got him at the diner, he brought it home for Jenny.

"I brought you something to eat." He offered as he came into the apartment.

"Thanks, but Mary gave me some fried chicken earlier this afternoon, you can eat the sandwich for your dinner." Jenny answered.

The apartment was warm from the heat of the day and Peter was still sweating a bit.