Birds and Bees

"We, uh...I need to, um, work. You know, outside."

"Oh okay! Can I help?"

"You...uh, yeah. Help is nice."

I couldn't stop staring at my sister's legs. I scanned, over and over, from the top of the waistband of her underwear all the way down to her bare feet, then back up again.

"So, uh, Ben?"

"Huh?"

"Could you toss me that pair of shorts down by your feet?"

"Shorts," I mumbled, not comprehending.

"Yep, shorts. Down by your feet."

I looked down at my feet and saw her shorts laying on the floor. I finally checked back in to reality, feeling wildly embarrassed by my obvious gawking.

"Oh shit, sorry!" I said as I quickly leaned over to get her shorts.

"Here you go!"

For reasons unbeknownst to me, I launched the shorts straight at her, as hard as I could throw them. They hit her square in the face with a muffled thud.

"What the heck, dude!?" she exclaimed.

"Ah, sorry Rhiannon! I'm sorry about the chicken...and the staring...and the shorts to the face."

Rhiannon just looked at me and smiled sweetly.

"It's fine, really. I guess it's kinda icky seeing your sister in her underwear. Sorry for making you uncomfortable."

"No, it's fine, really. And it's not icky at all, it's..."

My voice trailed off as she raised an eyebrow at me, still smiling.

"Uh...I'll just go make us some coffee."

"How 'bout tea?" she asked.

"Tea? Oh, right! Because of the...yeah. I'll see what I can find."

I left the room quickly, shutting the door behind me. I leaned my back against the hallway wall and slid down to a sitting position. Emma Jean came up to me, jumped in my lap, and clucked.

"I know," I said to her as she looked me in the eye. "I need to chill the hell out, don't I?"

*

After breakfast, we went outside and got started on my work for the day. We took care of the chickens first, then got to work in the garden. I showed her how to pull weeds as we worked side by side.

"So you do this everyday?" she asked.

"Yep. It's important. I argue it's the main reason that my produce always looks so much better than everyone else's around here. I work real hard at it."

"That's really cool, Ben."

We continued to pull weeds for a while. At one point I looked over at Rhiannon as she bent over, and felt ashamed to once again find myself checking her out. This time it was her butt that I noticed. Her shorts were fairly short, and the way she was positioned made it real easy to see the tiniest hint of cheek poking out of the bottom.

I forced myself to look away, thinking that she would definitely say something to me if she caught me staring for the second time in one morning. I decided to try and catch up with her some more, not only to distract me from looking at her, but also because I had tons of questions for her.

"So, can I ask you something?" I said to her.

"Sure."

"What the heck happened that night?"

Rhiannon stopped pulling weeds and turned around to face me.

"You mean the night Mama dragged me out of the house?"

"Yeah."

"Well, there's not much to tell. We got in the car and she started to tell me about some man she had met at work, how he had offered her to move out to Los Angeles with him."

"At work? But Mama worked at a grocery store...how the hell does a man from Los Angeles end up in a grocery store in our neck of the woods?"

"He worked at corporate doing...I don't know what. I guess he had been doing a bunch of visits to various stores out this way."

"And he fell for Mama?"

"Yep. He's much older than her...by like twenty something years. Say what you want about her, but she is a looker."

"Ugh...I guess."

"Anyway, after she told me that, I jumped out of the car while she was driving and started to run back towards the house."

"No way!"

"Yep. I mean, she was only going like twenty miles an hour or something, but that seems a heck of a lot faster when you're jumping out. She caught me, though, before I got too far. Dragged me to the airport, put us on a plane, and...the rest is history."

We had both stopped work completely and were sitting on the ground facing each other.

"Damn," I said. "So how was growing up in California?"

"Eh, not too bad. I mean at first, it sucked ass. But that's only because I missed you so much."

I felt my face redden and looked down at the ground.

"I tried to run away a couple of times," she continued, "but never really got too far. Eventually I just settled in the best I could. Life was pretty normal. My high school was pretty cool. I took a Walt Disney class."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it was pretty fun. We went to Disney Land for 'research'."

"That's so much cooler than any field trip I ever took! Although, I will say, there's no experience quite like a field trip to the cotton gin."

We didn't do any more work the rest of the morning. We just sat there on the ground exchanging stories from our years apart.

"I'm getting kinda hungry," Rhiannon eventually. "What were you thinking about doing for lunch? And please don't say anything about bologna."

"Actually, I was thinking about having some baked chicken. What d'ya think?"

"Okay! That sounds really good. Maybe I can make a side of potatoes."

"Sounds great. Well come on then, let's go."

As I started to walk away, Rhiannon called out to me.

"What are you doing, Ben?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, why are you walking that way? Aren't we going inside to eat lunch?"

"Well, we have to get the chicken first."

Horror covered Rhiannon's face as she realized what was happening.

"Oh my god, please tell me you aren't about to do what I think you're going to do."

"Nope."

"Oh okay, good."

"WE are about to do what you think I'm gonna do."

"Oh shit, Ben. No way! I'm not killing a chicken!"

"Relax, you don't have to kill anything. But you do need to help me catch it. Chickens are pretty fast."

"Can't we just go to the store and buy one that's already dead?"

"Well, that seems kinda silly since I've got so many here that I can have for free. Besides, I've got a rooster that needs to die anyway."

"Why does he 'need' to die, exactly?"

"Because he's an asshole! He's super mean to the other chickens. He's even tried coming after me a couple of times."

"And you expect me to help you catch this thing?"

"Sure! I'm gonna force it into the chicken coop. Then, all you have to do is stand at the door and make sure he doesn't get out while I try to get my hands on him."

"Uh...I don't know, Ben. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with this. I mean, little ol' Emma Jean freaked me out this morning. I'm kind of scared at the idea of trapping a rooster."

"You'll be fine, I promise! I'll be doing most of the work. Again, all you have to do is just stand guard at the door."

"You swear I'm not gonna get hurt?"

"Of course you won't, I promise. I mean, it's just a chicken. What's the worst that could happen?"

*

"Ben, you son of a bitch!"

Rhiannon held a towel tightly against the back of her bleeding leg as I drove us into town.

"Well why did you turn your back to him and run away!?"

"He jumped at me, that's why! Did that mother-fucker spawn straight out of hell or something?"

"He was just trying to protect himself! You should have-"

"Stop telling me what I should've done, Ben! I told you I that I wasn't comfortable helping you. I swear, when the doctor fixes up my leg, I'm kicking you ass!"

"Just try and relax. What's done is done, right? Just look on the bright side...you'll have a cool little scar to show all your friends back home when you tell them the story of your battle with the demon rooster. Am I right?"

Rhiannon shoved her finger in my face. I looked sideways at her as I drove, her eyes ablaze with fury.

"I'm going to beat the shit out of you," she said as she poked me in the head with each syllable.

Thankfully, the doctor didn't have to give her stitches for the gash. Instead he used some kind of skin glue to seal up the wound. We sat in the silence all the way home. I had feared that I had truly pissed her off, and possibly ruined the whole visit.

When we got home, we went in through the back door into the kitchen. I watched as Rhiannon immediately started to rifle through my kitchen drawers, clearly on the hunt for something in particular. Eventually she found what she was looking for.

She pulled out a very large, very sharp cleaver that I owned. She turned towards me with a terrifying smile, holding the cleaver up by her head.

"Oh my god, Rhiannon, no! Please! I'm so sorry, Don't-"

She walked past me and slammed the door on her way back outside. I went to the kitchen window and watched as she stomped violently across my backyard, heading straight for the gate that led to the rest of the property.

*

"This is so good, Rhiannon!", I said with a mouth full of a juicy leg quarter. "What did you put on it?"

"Oh, just a little thyme, pinch of salt. Nothing too crazy."

"Mmm. Well, this is amazing. And...I'm sorry again, you know, about the cut on your leg."

Rhiannon took a huge bite of chicken breast and spoke with her mouth full of meat.

"Don' worry 'bou tha'," she said before swallowing her mouthful and licking her fingers. "Justice was served in the end, wouldn't you say?"

"Uh, I suppose. Do, um, I need to worry about any retribution then?"

"Of course not, Benji! Besides, I'm not sure I could make you taste this good anyway."

"That L.A. sunshine has made you a little crazy, hasn't it?"

She looked up at me and winked before continuing her meal.

Later that evening, we found ourselves sitting on the screened in porch, drinking beer.

"So how does your scratch feel?" I asked her.

"You mean my deep laceration? It feels okay, I guess. I need to take a look at it and make sure it's not getting infected or anything. Would you mind doing it for me? I can't really see too well back there."

"Um, sure. Wanna go inside so I can see better?"

"No, I really like it out here. Here, just use the flashlight on my phone to look at it."

Rhiannon handed me her phone. She stayed in her seat while I knelt down and shined a light on her leg.

"It's kind of hard for me to see at this angle."

"Need me to move?"

"No, I can just...d'ya mind if I just reposition your leg a little bit?"

"Sure, position me however you need me."

I tried not to focus too much on the wording of that sentence as I took both of my hands and placed them on either side of her calf. My heart rate picked up ever so slightly at the feel of the silkiness of her leg. As gingerly as I could, I rotated her leg towards me, just enough so that the wound was right in front of my eyes. Then, leaving one hand on her leg, you know, for "support", I shined the light on it once again.

"Does it look okay?" she asked. "Any redness or anything?"

"No, it looks great to me. Then again, I'm not an expert or nothin'."

"Come around to the front of me for a second."

I did as she asked. When I stood in front of her, she stretched both of her legs out towards me.

"Look at the size of my calves. Does the one with the scratch on it look like it's bigger than the other? You know, like it's swollen or something?"

I looked, trying not to take too much advantage of being given free rein to gawp at her.

"Um, it doesn't look swollen to me."

"Feel the size of both of them at the same time. You know, just to be sure."

"Uh..okay then."

I sat down in front of her. She placed her bare feet on my lap as I reached up and squeezed both of her calf muscles simultaneously. The urge to move my hands higher up her leg was very real, and I did my best to put those thoughts out of my head.

"They feel the same to me, Sis."

"Okay, good. Thanks."

I took my hands off of her and placed them on the porch behind me, using them for support. I didn't feel the need to get up right away, and apparently Rhiannon didn't feel the need to remove her feet right away, either.

"Ben?" she said, in a quiet and somber tone.

"Yeah?"

"Why didn't you ever try and find me?"

That question came from out of nowhere, and it took a few moments to really sink into my brain what she was asking me. I looked up at her and noticed, even in the dim outdoor lighting, that there were definite tears welling in her eyes.

"I didn't have a clue where you were, Rhiannon."

"I don't mean in person...I created profiles on every single social media site that I could think of as soon as I figured out how to work them. I searched and I searched for you, hoping to one day see that you had created one too. But I couldn't find you anywhere. I couldn't even call you, because when I did try and call the house, it said the phone was disconnected."

"Yeah, Daddy did that the day after y'all left. He didn't want there to be any chance that Mama would ever try and get in touch with him again."

"Yeah, I figured as much. But...you could have looked for me online. Why didn't you?"

I felt myself starting to choke up a little bit, but kept my cool so as to try and explain myself as best as I could.

"I...honestly, Rhiannon, I have no excuse. I mean, at first, you know, we didn't have internet out here until I was like 14 years old."

"Why not try and find me after that, then?"

"I thought about it constantly, Rhiannon. Every single damn day. But it had just been so long, and the longer I put it off, the more I was certain that you wouldn't want to talk to me."

"I wouldn't want to talk to you?"

"I know, it doesn't make any sense. I don't know what I was thinking. If I could go back and change it, I would in an instant."

"We could have talked every day, Ben. If you had just gotten on, like, Facebook or something, we could have messaged each other. Every single day I searched your name. For ten years, without fail, I looked for you every day. We could have kept our relationship strong. But you didn't even try."

"I was a fool...and a coward. I had this crazy idea that you had moved on, forgotten about me. I was so scared of finding you, only to find out that you were interested anymore."

"I was. I cried over you for a year, Ben. I begged and begged and begged Mama to bring me home to you. Did you even miss me at all? Did you even think about me?"

"Every day," I choked out.

She took a few minutes to cry, then gathered herself enough to continue.

"By the time I graduated high school, I thought about flying out here to find you, hoping that you guys hadn't moved. But...I guess I know what you mean about being scared. I was too, I suppose. I was afraid of getting all the way out here, only to find that you didn't really want to know me anymore. Pains of the past, and whatnot."

"Guess we were both cowards, then."

"For no good reason."

I stood up and extended both of my hands to her. She took my hands as I pulled her into a standing position. I put my arms around her and held her as close to me as was humanly possible.

"I just missed you so much, Ben!" she cried.

We stood there on the porch, embracing, for what felt like an eternity. Eventually I pulled back from her, held her head in my hands, and kissed her lightly on the forehead.

"Come with me," I said to her.

I grabbed her by the hand and led her back into the house and into my bedroom.

"I want to show you something," I said as I pulled out an old shoe box that had been stored in my closet since the night she left.

I sat on the floor and gestured for her to sit across from me, which she did. Then, I opened the box.

"I've saved this since the night you left this house."

Rhiannon looked into the box with a confused look.

"Cards?"

"Yes."

"I don't...oh! Is this...did you save our game we were playing?"

"All this time. I've been hoping that one day you would come back and we'd be able to finish."

"That's...that's really sweet, Ben."

She leaned forward, placed her hand on one side of my head, and kissed me firmly on my cheek. I thought my face was going to melt from the heat of my blushing.

"So," she began, "you wanna play, then?"

"What, now?"

"Sure! You got a date or something?"

"Well, no! I just...I don't know Rhiannon."

"What's wrong?"

"I just don't wanna hurt you anymore. We've had an emotional evening already. Are you gonna cry some more after I beat you?"

She glared at me hard, but almost immediately broke into a huge, beautiful smile.

"Bring it on, bitch!" she exclaimed.

We each took our stacks, hers consisting of only four cards, mine the rest of the deck. We both flipped over the top cards on our decks, both of us revealing an ace.

"Aha!" she cried out. "This is where I make my comeback, then!"

The way we played War, when there was a tie, each player laid out three cards, face down, side-by-side. Then, we randomly picked one, and whoever had the highest card won the whole stack.

I laid out my top three cards, and Rhiannon laid out her last three.

"You flip first," I said.

"Okay then, chicken!"

She flipped over a card and revealed a 10.

"Ha!" she exclaimed. "Not bad, not bad. Your turn."

I made a show of trying to make up my mind, almost choosing one, but then dramatically switching to another. Finally, I flipped over the one in the middle.

"King!" I cried out excitedly. "I win!"

"Are you fucking kidding me!?" she whined. "Five days of this damn game, then a hiatus of over ten years, only to finish in one freakin' move? Sheesh, how anti-climactic."

"Well..." I began, before trailing off.

"Well...what?" she said, eyeing me suspiciously.

"Right after you guys left that night, I may have slightly altered my cards just a touch."

I flipped over my remaining to cards to reveal that they were both kings, too.

"You cheated!?"

"I thought you'd be right back! I didn't know you'd be gone for ten damn years! I was so sick of playing that game...I just wanted it to end."

"Tsk, tsk, Benji. Shame on you."

"Yeah, I know."

"That's okay, we'll just start a new game tomorrow!"

"Oh, no!"

"Yep! That's what you get for rigging the game!"

"Ugh, fine."

She sat back and looked around the bedroom for a bit.

"I really miss this room, you know?" she said.

"Oh, well, you wanna sleep in here tonight?"

She glanced sideways at me, a tiny little smirk on her face. I replayed my previously spoken sentence in my head, then began freaking out a little.

"Oh, fuck, no! I mean, I don't mean sleep with me or anything! I just meant switch rooms! Oh god, sorry!"

She smiled sweetly, then once again leaned over to me and kissed my cheek.

"You're too cute. I'll just keep my room for now. But maybe we'll see how the rest of the week goes."

"Wait, what do you..."

She pinched my cheek and ruffled my hair.

"G'nite, big brother."

With that, she walked across the hall to her room, looking back at me once more before shutting her door. A few seconds later, Her door opened again, and she gingerly placed Emma Jean in the hallway before closing her door once more.

Emma Jean made her way over to me and perched herself on my lap. I mindlessly rubbed my finger across her back, trying to figure out my emotions.

"I'm such a confused mess," I said aloud as Emma Jean had one of her occassional accidents on my thigh.

"Goddamnit."

*

The next morning, we sat at the table finishing up our breakfast of loaded scrambled eggs, mine with a side of fried Spam, of course. I was arguing that the "loaded scrambled eggs" were absolutely no different than the omelets from the other night. Rhiannon counter-argued that I should just shut the hell up and enjoy a meal than didn't come out of a box or a can for once. I decided to let her win that one.

"You know, Ben, I was thinking last night as I was falling asleep, about something we wanted a lot as kids but were never allowed to have."