Fields of Tall Grass

"I'll remember this day forever," Jenny said.

"Wish all my memories were this good."

"Tell me about it."

"So what's your story? I want to know everything."

Jenny shrugged. "We both went to the Josephsons. They took good care of us. We were the only kids they ever brought in. It was good."

"That's outstanding."

"Yeah. Especially after all..." She waved a hand at the farm house.

"I remember that time you burned the sausage."

Jenny stopped walking. She shook her head, trying to dispel whatever demons had just been summoned. Alex held her once more, partly to apologize for his insensitivity. They stood like that for half-a-minute, then walked again. Neither spoke for a while, then Jenny said, "You know, the family I was with before the Cormicks was much worse. They used to punch me in the stomach."

"I never knew that."

"Why talk about it? We were just ten."

"Yeah."

"And you? The lawyer said Dennis is your brother. Did you go to the same home?"

"No." Alex had never told the whole truth to anyone, but he would tell Jenny. "I ended up with the nicest folks I'd ever met, although they were caring for six kids and didn't really need another one. Dennis, well... he wasn't so lucky. They fractured his skull."

"Oh no."

"That was the same summer we left the farm. I found him, and we ran away."

"But he was only nine."

"It was stupid, I know. Things weren't any better in other cities."

"They never are."

"I wouldn't say that." Alex squeezed Jenny's hand. He felt so great he could fly. "The goth look is new."

"No, the goth look is eight years old."

"Any tattoos?"

"One, on my shoulder blade."

"Show me later?"

Jenny smiled. "Absolutely." She curled herself around Alex's arm and put her head on his shoulder. Then suddenly she shouted, "Oh my god! You'll never guess what."

"What?"

"I met my real parents. I'm a quarter black."

"Nice. And the other three quarters?"

"Anglo mutt. My dad's half-black, really handsome. My mom looks like a Swedish bikini model, pale like me but blonde, plus about seventy pounds overweight."

"What's their story?"

"Drugs and jail. They're both outside now, but we don't talk. I'm majoring in architecture, and the Josephsons are paying for school. Who needs more parents?"

"Well, Dennis found out about his. They died in a car wreck when he was two. He took their last name."

"Hernandez?"

"That's right. He's in junior college now. I just graduated. Degree in business."

"Very smart." Jenny suddenly stopped walking and let out a quick shout, aimed straight at the sky. "I can't believe it! Can you believe we're here? That we're in college?"

"I'm trying very hard to believe it."

"Uh oh," Jenny said. "I hear splashing."

Still holding hands, the two ran over the next hill and spotted Becky and Dennis splashing in the water. As the older kids got closer, they were shocked to find clothes strewn across the grass.

"What the hell?" Jenny shouted at them.

"We're just swimming!" Becky called back. Her white bra straps could be seen above the water.

"No, this is called skinny-dipping," Jenny replied.

Dennis said, "It wasn't called that when we were kids. We always used to strip to underpants and jump right in."

"He's right, you know," Alex said. He pulled his red t-shirt over his head, then unbuckled his jeans and kicked them off along with his sneakers, leaving him in grey briefs. He dashed into the water, trying not to think about his imminent death by embarrassment if Jennifer decided to keep her clothes on and go back to the house.

But Jenny wasted no time taking off her tank top, jeans and combat boots, revealing her black cotton bra and panties. She ran screaming into the cold water, making a splash that drenched her three companions.

The four reacquainted siblings played hard for half-an-hour. Jenny got on Alex's shoulders, and the two girls had chicken fights. He could tell from Dennis's idiot grin he was thinking the same thing: Can you believe the women we love have their naked thighs pressed against our cheeks? Afterward, they paired off, with Jenny and Alex bobbing near the shore in deep conversation while Becky and Dennis waded far out in the middle of the lake.

*****

"The Josephsons are really great," Becky said. "And it's not about the money. It's just nice to not have to worry whether you can afford socks, you know?"

"Right, exactly." Dennis treaded water as close to the girl as he could. Sometimes they touched hands, absent any explanation, then kept swimming. "Is that the first place you went after the farm?"

"Yeah. I've been in the same house for ten years. It's like foster care never even happened some days."

"Must be nice."

"Where'd you go after you left here?"

Dennis hissed. "I don't talk about it much."

"Oh, okay."

"I mean, not with other people. But I'll tell you. You can ask me anything."

"So... why don't you talk about it?"

"They beat me up. I was just a paycheck from the state. Same as here."

"Still makes me mad."

"Same here."

"But it's better now, right?"

"Oh yeah. We ended up in Ithica with these really nice people, the Cortezes. That was four years ago, so they're like our real folks, me and Alex and three other boys. Alex is the only non-Hispanic, but he's Italian so he fits right in. We never got adopted."

"You share a room with Alex?"

"Yeah. He's in college now. Well, he just graduated."

Becky dipped her head in the water, pushing her bright red hair back. "What kind of music you listen to?"

"Everything, really."

"You like Christina Aguilera?" Becky asked.

"She's okay. I'm more into hip hop. Outkast is good."

"I like Outkast." She sang the chorus from "Hey Ya," and they both laughed.

Dennis floated on his back, facing the sky. "I've got an awesome CD collection now."

"That's cool."

"Never had CDs growing up. It was always the radio."

"I kinda miss the radio."

"Me too! God, you must be the only girl that understands."

"You have a girlfriend?"

"No."

Becky sighed with relief. "Why not?"

"Dunno. I'm just having fun right now. Do you have a boyfriend?"

"No."

"Is there a boy who thinks he's your boyfriend?"

Becky smiled, embarrassed she got caught. "Yes."

"You think he'd kick my ass if he saw us like this?"

Becky scoffed. "He quit being my boyfriend, like, twenty minutes ago."

"Oh yeah?" Dennis said emphatically.

"Yeah," Becky replied in her softest tones. She watched every move Dennis made with a growing sense of desire. Her life as a foster kid had left her a creature of extremes. When she partied, she partied hard, and when she complained, she complained long. After all, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and even Jenny always pounded it into her head that no one would look out for her but she herself. Sex with boys was not her favorite pastime, not with the memory of Dennis embedded in her brain for the last ten years. No man would ever be as kind or show her as much attention as Dennis had when he was eight-years-old.

Now he had come back to her, muscular and tan, funny and happy, just as impetuous as she was, and he seemed to be leading her to the other side of the lake, where the forest of thin trees stood. She hoped desperately that he had the same thing in mind, but she played it as cool as she could. No innuendos or sexual banter of any kind passed between them, but surely she wasn't misinterpreting the look in Dennis's eyes.

"What's it like in New York?" she asked.

"I don't live in the city. It's Ithica, in a different part of the state."

"That's cool. But you've been to Manhattan."

"Oh yeah, lots of times. The last family before this one was the Greens. They weren't so nice, but they had money. Took us to some Broadway plays."

"Neat."

"We should go sometime."

"I'd like that."

"No, seriously. I'm not leaving you again."

Becky felt a lump in her throat. "Okay."

"I've thought about you every day of my life. I promised if we ever met again, I'd be ready for you." His face took on a determined look. "I'd be a good man, maybe have some money, and the four of us could live together again and be a family."

"You mean, we could be brother and sister again." Becky noticed they were almost to the shore.

"Well..." Dennis rolled his eyes. "I mean, we're not... REALLY... brother and sister."

"No, not really."

"I mean, you're close to me like a sister."

"Oh, I know. You're close to me, too."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Except..."

"Except what?"

Reality took a sharp right turn. Just as words began to fail her, she body rose out of the water. She didn't dare look down, but she felt certain her hard, pink nipples would be poking through the white fabric of her bra. Dennis rose from the water as well, and right away she spotted the big boner in his white boxer shorts. The shape of his penis was clearly defined beneath the thin fabric, and she couldn't stop staring. He was looking at her too, coveting her body with undisguised lust. Never before had Becky felt so eager to put her hands on a boy and have his hands on her. Thoughts of propriety fluttered around her head like moths, but they didn't make much of impact against the burning aura of wanting that enveloped her. She was almost afraid of her inability to think rationally in this moment. The desire would not be stopped.

Dennis looked across the lake, and Becky followed his gaze. She saw Alex and Jenny lying next to one another on the grass, talking and laughing. Neither were watching Dennis and her, and just like that they decided to make a run for it. Dennis took her hand in his and beckoned her into the trees. They ran on bare feet across the forest floor, ignoring the texture of the rocks and branches much the same way they had as bare-footed kids so long ago. After several long seconds they were out of the woods and back in full daylight, standing at the edge of a field of tall green grass.

"Rebecca," Dennis said. His voice trembled, as did the hand with which he held hers.

"Oh Dennis," Becky replied, as though sharing his fear of what was about to happen. Then Dennis stepped forward, wrapped his hand around her waist and kissed her on the mouth.

Their tongues collided, and both moaned loudly. Rather than dwell on the carnal wrongness of the moment, they were compelled by it, excited to a deeper level of lust. They breathed hard against one another as their hands roamed without restriction across their bodies. Dennis slipped his hands beneath Becky's panties, holding her ass reverently as he kissed and licked her neck. Becky pulled his boxers down and held his penis in her hand, playing with it like a new toy.

"Jesus Christ, Dennis."

"What?"

"It's ten inches. It's as thick as my wrist."

"It's not that thick."

"Nearly."

They dropped to their knees and rolled over the grass, flattening it into a soft bed. Dennis kicked his boxers off as he unhooked the front of Becky's bra. His mouth found her hard, small, stony nipples and sucked them with vigor. Becky moaned and breathed loudly, luxuriating in the sense of remote privacy. They were exposed before the world, but no one would ever find them or see them here. She pushed her panties to her knees, and Dennis used his foot to pull them the rest of the way.

"I love you, Becky," Dennis said.

Tears sprang to Becky's eyes. "I love you, too."

"I've loved you my whole life."

"Like boyfriend and girlfriend."

"Yeah."

"I've dreamed about you. I think about you all the time."

"I never thought I'd see you again."

"I'm so in love with you, Dennis."

The boy put his fingertips on Becky's face. "I feel like I don't even know you," he said reflectively.

"What do you want to know?" Becky said tenderly, her defenses shattered.

"I... I mean... are you, you know..."

"A virgin?"

"I don't want to hurt you."

"Are you?" Becky asked.

"No."

"Me neither."

"So this is okay?"

Becky kissed Dennis on the mouth and pulled his wet, naked body down onto hers. "Fuck my brains out, Dennis. I want you so bad."

Dennis fondled Becky's pussy, rubbing his fingers through her soft, red pubic hair. She was dripping with cream. When he stroked her lips, trying to part them so he could enter, she gasped with pleasure and hugged Dennis harder. He moved directly on top of her, pressed the head of his dick against her passage, and pushed inside. Becky felt her entire body open up to him, starting with her spread thighs. "Oh yes," she yelled, then grabbed Dennis's ass and dug her fingernails in. The boy kissed her forehead and began to move inside her.

"Is it safe?" he asked.

"Yeah," Becky said. Jenny had them both taking the pill since 15 and 13, but now wasn't the time to discuss it. She bucked and twisted under Dennis, fucking him as hard as he was putting it to her. She felt like her lifelong fantasy had come true, and all she could do was smile and experience it. Her orgasm arrived quickly, bursting like a firecracker, grabbing her insides with a wave of pleasure, then sticking around to color the rest of the intercourse. Dennis seemed to know he had brought the girl to orgasm, but he never slowed down.

"Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh fuck," Dennis said, slamming inside her again and again.

The two kids laughed and rolled in the grass, fucking hard until Dennis pulled his thick cock out and aimed it at Becky's stomach. Thick, juicy globs of cum filled her belly button, then trailed off down her sides.

"Let's do that again," Dennis said as he rubbed the cum into Becky's flesh.

"In a minute," said the girl. She kissed Dennis, lovingly, without reservation, just as she had kissed her pillow so many times over the years. Her dreams had not done him justice.

*****

Jenny tried very hard not to stare at Alex. She was still shocked by how big he was, not merely tall and muscular (which he was—holy fuck, what sweet abs) but just the idea that he was no longer thirteen. Her romantic notions about him had percolated and swelled over the past ten years to the point that no man could possibly have lived up to them... and yet, here he was, stretched out in his underwear on the green grass, eyes closed and perfectly content, that same inward smile she remembered from long ago. He was a mere mortal, she reminded herself, not the sublime ideal he seemed to be, but why undermine the illusion? Much nicer to just stare at him and believe in his sublimity, though she tried very hard not to stare.

"Hey look, some chocolate." Jenny picked up Becky's left over candy, snapped off a piece and popped it in her mouth. "Wanna piece?"

"Sure." Alex took a wedge. "Mmm, dark chocolate."

"I like my chocolate dark."

Alex laughed hard. "Whoa."

"Whuuuut?" Jenny said, punching Alex's arm.

"We really have come a long way. Not only are you making sexual innuendos, but I'm actually picking up on them."

"Innuendos? You're nuts."

"Shit. You think I'm sexy."

"Sexy, yes. Dark, not so much."

"Hey, I'm dark!"

"Not dark like Dennis."

"No. But we look like brothers."

"Can't deny that. He's grown up nice."

"We all have." Alex slipped the chocolate from her hand. "You're damn fine," he said as he ate another piece.

"I wouldn't say that?"

"What the fuck?" Alex said. "You're down on yourself now?"

Jenny shrugged. She replayed what her therapist had told her about establishing herself when she felt her self-esteem slipping. No one but herself could be blamed for the walls she built around her, not even the abusive parents she's escaped from. The therapist had also warned her to put away her feelings for Alex, mostly because she suspected they'd never meet again but for other valid reasons as well. Well, Jenny decided, her first step toward asserting her own will on the world would be deciding to let Alex into her heart, if he wanted to go there. Some dreams were too tempting to deny.

"What ya thinking about?" Alex asked, his eyes closed.

"The burned sausage."

"I shouldn't have brought that up."

"It's fine. Not like I could forget. My head still hurts when I remember how hard she hit me with the pan."

"I was scared."

"Not too scared to rip the pan from her hands and crack the wall with it."

Alex looked at her, his hazel eyes longing for her, or so she hoped. He said, "No, not too scared."

"There were good times, too. Lots of them."

"Remember when they took us to the Ft. Worth Zoo?"

"Oh yeah. That was great."

Alex propped himself up on one elbow. "You wore a pink dress with white ribbons."

Jenny laughed. "I did not."

Alex laughed. "I promise."

"Do I even own a pink dress now?" She smiled. "I bet my friends would love to see that. Something lacy and soft." She turned to Alex. "You remember that?"

Alex swallowed. "I remember everything."

Instantly, Jenny was aware of her half-nakedness. She had spent a lifetime transforming herself into the hard girl, the one who would try anything once, and stripping to bra and panties to go swimming hadn't seemed like such a daring risk. But now the love of her life was looking at her, wanting her, maybe even judging her. Did he hate her tattoo, or the ring in her belly button or the three in her ear? Did he think she was too fat, or too skinny? Was she too pale for his tastes? Alex still had such a gorgeous, healthy tan. She had daydreamed since her childhood about nibbling on that tender boy flesh, and there it was, two feet away, close enough to touch without having to reach. If she didn't do something soon to bridle her emotions, they would spill out and all over him.

"So tell me what YOU'RE thinking about."

Alex's gaze remained targeted on her. "I'm not doing much thinking at the moment."

Jenny licked her lips, not as a sexy gesture but because they were completely dry. "I'm glad you're here," she said.

"I'm glad, too."

Gaining control of herself, Jenny shook her head, flinging water drops from her curly hair. "Wanna take a walk?"

Alex looked out at the lake. "Where'd those kids go?"

Jenny chuckled. "Poor Becky. She's completely in love with Dennis."

Alex laughed outright. "That's good."

"Why?"

"Because Dennis is completely in love with Becky."

"Kinda obvious, huh?" Then she frowned. "You don't think they're..."

Alex shrugged. "They're big kids is what they are. And they're not related."

"You don't have a problem with it?"

"Why? Because we were all family once?"

"I guess so."

Alex sat up. "Family doesn't mean a goddamn thing to me. I've had a hundred brothers and sisters, and a dozen sets of parents, if you include the orphanage wardens." He looked at her. "Any love I have for Dennis is because of who we are and what we went through, not because some piece of paper says he's my brother."

He's wonderful, Jenny thought. All those years of missing him and setting him on a pedestal, she's spent just as much time worrying about what emotional baggage he would be carrying around, and how it would sear those who tried to get close. But he learned how NOT to be from the Cormicks, just as she had. Maybe it was good they both had someone to look after. Jenny often wondered how far over the edge she would have gone if Becky hadn't needed her so badly. Certainly she never would have gone to college, which she dearly enjoyed.

In the car on the way to the farm, Becky announced her plans to seduce Dennis and make him marry her. The thought of the two younger siblings out there in the woods somewhere, naked and making love on the dirty ground, whipped up the desire she had been trying to repress. She knew she sometimes had a tendency to read too much into things, but she couldn't help wondering if Alex's observations about Becky and Dennis were also meant for the two of them. She hoped so, she truly did, and with the realization, all bets were off. The sun would not set without Alex knowing how she felt about him.