Exploring with My Big Brother

"Sure, thanks Tyler, I haven't been up there in ages," I said.

Tyler drove westwards and given the car was older than me I was a bit worried it would make it up the mountain, but it was just fine and soon Tyler and I were enjoying the wonderful views of the Brisbane River and city skyline.

"Sure has changed even since I was a kid," I said to Tyler, looking back at the skyscrapers. "Back then Riparian Plaza was the tallest, and now there's all these other massive skyscrapers and huge apartment blocks."

"It's even more different from when I was a kid," said Tyler. "There were very few tall buildings back in the 1980s, and it was pretty quiet around the city on weekends and after dark. It's the same for the Gold Coast, what we thought were massive skyscrapers are now small compared to buildings like Q1. Talking on the Gold Coast, did you still want to go down there this afternoon?"

"Sure," I said. "Unless you didn't, and wanted to go somewhere else?"

Tyler grinned his mischievous grin, this and the sparkle in his eyes making my brother even more handsome. "I was thinking we might drive north instead to the Sunshine Coast, and you know call in at my uncle's house and give Dad a surprise. What do you think, Matilda?"

I laughed. "You suggested it Tyler, not me."

Tyler laughed. "So you don't think that Dad would be happy if I turned up and gave him a really big surprise?"

"Um, no," I said. "You really seemed to have bad luck with him this morning."

Tyler nodded. "Yeah, he called me a twit three times."

"Is that a world record?"

Tyler shook his head. "No, one time he called me a twit seven times."

"Seven? When was that? What did you do?"

Tyler grinned. "It was before you were born, I would have been 14 at the time, so back in the early 90s. We were on a school trip and my mates and I were mucking around playing silly buggers on the train so we got kicked off. Mum refused to come and collect me when the school rang, so Dad had to leave work and drive miles out of town to pick me up."

I rolled my eyes. "I bet Dad was happy about that?"

"Yeah, he was really pissed off about it," said Tyler. "So you really don't think Dad would like me to turn up and surprise him?"

"No, best you don't do that," I said.

Tyler again grinned. "So instead how about going north we go east instead? You know to Redlands and surprise Karen? I'm sure Karen would love it if I turned up unannounced 'Hey Karen, isn't it a great day today? Hey, I'm absolutely starving, how about you get me some lunch? And get me a beer while you're at it.'"

I thought about my sister's reaction for this and laughed. "If you want to do that, drop me off at the railway station so I can catch the train home. I don't want to be part of it."

"You don't think it's a good idea?" Tyler laughed. "You don't think Karen would be happy to see me?"

"No," I said. I then smiled. "Hey, here's an idea. How about we head west instead, and visit your mother and stepfather?"

"Ha, ha, very funny Matilda," Tyler said as I giggled.

"What, you're not scared of the dogs are you?" I teased. "What are you, a chicken?"

"Being chicken is very sensible with Jim's dogs," said Tyler, shaking his head. "The German Shepherd is more like a wolf, and that Rottweiler is more like some guard dog from a maximum security prison."

"What about the third dog?" I asked. "I'm not sure what breed it is, it's weird. It looks more like a hyena than a dog."

"I don't know either, but vicious is what I call it," said Tyler. "It hates my guts. Just like Jim. Jesus, what is it with Mum marrying grouchy men? First Dad, then Jim, what a grumpy old prick. His daughters are miserable bitches too -- I wonder why?"

"So I guess the Gold Coast it is then," I said.

"Yes, much safer option for me," said Tyler. "My sister, father, mother and stepfather and stepfather's dogs aren't there." He paused and laughed. "At least I don't think they are."

We got into Tyler's car and he drove south towards the Gold Coast, me glad that my much more experienced brother was driving down the busy Pacific Motorway with the speeding cars, trucks and buses through the southern suburbs of Brisbane and through the Logan region, before we reached the northern areas of the Gold Coast around Ormeau, and proceeded south.

Tyler exited onto the Smith Street Motorway, and drove towards the coast and Southport, the high-rises coming into sight. We were just over an hour out of Brisbane, but it was like we were in another city in another state.

"I'll park here, and we'll catch the tram," Tyler said, going into a car park near the Broadwater. It sure was a busy day, there were people everywhere -- Gold Coast locals, tourists from overseas and interstate, and day-trippers like my brother and I. Lots of boats and yachts were visible on the sparkling Broadwater, and a helicopter flew by.

It was busy in Southport as well, and as we caught the south-bound tram this was clearly the more sensible option as the streets of Main Beach and Surfers Paradise were filled with vehicles and pedestrians too. Reaching the tram terminus in Broadbeach South -- another busy suburb given there was a surf carnival going on -- Tyler and I had browse around the large shopping center, and then took a bus out to the markets at Carrara for a half hour or so, before returning to Broadbeach.

"How about we catch a bus down to Burleigh?" Tyler suggested. "I haven't been down there for ages."

"Sounds good to me, it's been a few months since I've been to Burleigh," I said.

Buses from Broadbeach down to the southern coastal suburbs of the Gold Coast were pretty frequent, and soon Tyler and I were aboard one traveling down the Gold Coast Highway through Mermaid Beach towards our destination of Burleigh Heads.

I looked out the windows as the bus went along, noting that the weather was changing. It had been a flawless blue sky this morning and around noon, now clouds were beginning to roll in across the Hinterland and inland Gold Coast suburbs like Varsity Lakes, Robina and Nerang.

There were more clouds out to sea as Tyler and I disembarked at Burleigh, walking through the towering Norfolk Island pine trees that grew in abundance in this area and to the beach. A fresh breeze blew the sand around, and the waves rolled in. Clouds were building up out to sea and the sunlight was now intermittent as a plane flew in low to land at the Gold Coast airport.

I glanced up at the steep rocky headland, which sort of marked the divide between the northern coastal suburbs of the Gold Coast and the start of the southern Gold Coast through Palm Beach, Currumbin, Tugun, Coolangatta and Tweed Heads.

"Watch out, Matilda!" Tyler laughed as a screeching flock of seagulls flew overhead and I narrowly avoided being bombarded by guano by some of the unfriendly birds.

I looked back at the coastal high rises in Broadbeach, and further north to Surfers Paradise where the high rises were greater in height and more spectacular in size, the blue Q1 tower, the white Soul building and the twin towers of the Circle on Cavill dominating the skyline in this part of town.

Feeling thirsty, I got a bottle of water I had purchased back in Broadbeach and opened it, but dropped the lid on the sand as I did so. Quickly and without thinking I bent over to pick it up. Right in front of Tyler, my short little summer dress rode up and for the third time today -- following getting into the car and the breeze from the Brisbane River lifting my skirt -- I showed my white, polka-dot panties to my brother. This time he would have seen my panty-covered ass, the outline of my buttocks covered by the cotton and between my legs, the shape of my vagina.

Tyler looked away quickly, a little too quickly, as I straightened up and my dress fell back down to cover my underwear, and Tyler and I talked about sensible, normal things appropriate for a 40-year-old brother and his 18-year-old sister to discuss. Inside my knickers however, I could feel my pussy tingling as my clitoris reacted to my brother seeing my panties. What was wrong with me?

Around 3.30, Tyler and I caught the bus back to Broadbeach and as we waited for the tram, I overheard three boys around my age passing by whispering among each other. "Did you see that creepy like 40-year-old guy with that hot girl our age?" the first boy asked. "She's young enough to be his daughter."

"Yeah, can anyone say Humbert Humbert?" the second boy laughed.

The third boy also laughed. "Lucky guy. I hope when I'm 40 I have a hot 18-year-old girlfriend like her."

The young men went on their way towards the shopping center, laughing as they did so. Tyler didn't seem to have heard anything, he texting on his phone and completely tuned out. I shouldn't have been horny at some youths mistaking us for an age-disparate couple rather than a half brother and sister with a large age gap, but between my legs my vagina had other ideas.

Tyler and I climbed on the tram, and it departed for the long journey to Helensvale, not that Tyler and I were going that far. It was overcast now in the late afternoon, and some large spots of rain fell on the tram's windscreen as we went past the Cascade Gardens, me noticing a bat out and about quite early among the tall trees.

We disembarked at Northcliffe, and walked along the Surfers Paradise Beach, me noticing that the full moon was rising early tonight through the clouds. There were a few raindrops, but nothing much and the view south was pretty good, we could see Burleigh where we had been earlier, and all the way down to Point Danger and the Coolangatta/Tweed high rises on the New South Wales and Queensland border.

Tyler and I exited the beach at the Surfers Paradise beachfront sign and walked up Cavill Mall, which was full of people as was the case most Saturday afternoons and evenings. Walking further through Surfers, Tyler and I made for the Nerang River and admired the fancy houses across the waters. Nobody could accuse Tyler and I of being idle on our brother and sister day out, we had walked miles.

Going back into the main part of Surfers Paradise, the sounds of currawongs and magpies audible in the trees that lined the streets, we headed for a games arcade, playing some old-fashioned games. As was often the case I felt as though I maybe had been born too late, and that I would have been better off being born 20 years earlier in 1980 and been a teenager in the 1990s when games like this were more common.

"So do you think Zac and his friends are in the gaming zone right now?" Tyler mused.

I shot down some UFOs on the game I was playing and laughed. "Guarantee it. There could be an earthquake or cyclone, and Zac and company wouldn't move an inch."

It was now approaching evening, and Tyler and I were getting hungry so headed for a small café off the Surfers Paradise Boulevard. We placed our orders at the counter, Tyler ordering a soft drink with his dinner, while I ordered a mixed drink.

"I'm sorry, we're going to need to see your daughter's ID for us to serve her alcohol," said the lady in charge to Tyler.

As I reached into my purse to retrieve my driver's license to show I was over 18, Tyler said, "Matilda actually isn't my daughter."

The lady looked quizzically at him, like the boys at the tram stop earlier thinking that we were a couple where the guy was much older than the girl, but the middle-aged blonde didn't look impressed at all. Instead she regarded Tyler like he was a pervert or some sort of child molester, even when my drivers' license proved how old I was. I always got asked for ID, my petite size and my demure appearance guaranteed this.

"We're actually brother and sister," I said, the lady clearly not fully believing Tyler nor me and seeming to be keeping an eye on us as we sat at an outside table waiting for our food.

Tyler laughed. "Lucky Dad wasn't here when the lady thought we were father and daughter. Remember that time at the theme park where the gay attendant thought I was your and Zac's father and Dad was your grandfather? He wasn't very pleased."

I laughed, thinking back to the incident that happened when I was 13 and Zac 11. Mum and Joanna were off doing something together, while Dad, Tyler, Zac and I were in another part of the theme park. A very gay, extremely camp young male theme park attendant had commented to Dad what a fabulous day it was, and how lucky Dad was getting to spend it with his son, indicating Tyler, and grandkids indicating us.

"Yeah, Dad was really pissed off about it," I said. That was an understatement. Our indignant father had looked like he was about to suffer a stroke after consuming a cocktail of unripe lemon, lime, orange and grapefruit juice. I could see that Dad was glaring at Tyler, clearly blaming him and thinking 'Tyler you twit!' but he didn't say it that day, because this mistake -- and not the first time it had happened -- was hardly Tyler's fault. Dad blamed Tyler for most things, but that Dad had remarried in middle age and become a father again aged 50 wasn't something Tyler was responsible for.

"I think somebody wants to share your dinner," said Tyler, indicating to where a white ibis with its long black legs, bill and head was standing next to me, staring at me with big black beady eyes hoping I would be hypnotized into giving up my tea to the bird.

"Yeah, the bin chicken can stare all it likes because there's no way it's getting any of my tea," I said.

The ibis and several others made their way up and down the street where other diners were eating, hoping to scab food, but it was to no avail, the birds only losing interest when a young bogan guy carelessly tossed a bucket of half-eaten hot chips at a rubbish bin rather than put it inside. The ibises took flight, honking loudly as they fought over the chips at the bin.

With its northern latitude and deep into autumn, nightfall for Queensland always came quickly and early, with little to no dusk. It was no exception this Saturday night as large drops of rain continued to fall, and the full moon intermittently shone through the cloud cover. It had been fully light when Tyler and I first went into the café, but was completely dark as we left, walking to the nearest tram stop to return to Tyler's car, the ornate clock on the front of a nearby hotel marking our departure by loudly chiming the hour.

Rain drops continued to fall as Tyler and I walked through Southport, also busy with people on a Saturday night. We reached the car park near the Broadwater, lights twinkling from the Southport high rises, the skyscrapers back at Surfers, across the water at Main Beach and navigation lights on the waterway itself. Moths and mosquitos aplenty made their presences known around the lights in the car park, and Tyler looked at his car.

"Well, it's still here, so that's a good thing," he laughed.

"Well, what self-respecting car thief would want to be seen driving it?" I giggled.

"Yeah, ha-ha, Matilda," said Tyler, also laughing and pulling on my pony-tail in mock retribution. "It's still a good car -- well it goes, so that's the main thing."

"If it did get stolen, it would have to be an older car thief," I said as we got into the vehicle and Tyler started it.

"How's that?" Tyler asked as he put the car into reverse and backed out.

"It's a manual," I said. "Young people these days generally can't drive a manual transmission car. At school, I was one of the few kids who had a manual license. Most of them could only drive an automatic, and a lot of them didn't drive at all, and still don't."

"Why don't they want to drive?" Tyler queried, as he exited the car park.

"Some of them are worried about climate change, global warming and all that," I said. "Or they prefer to get driven places while they concentrate on their phones."

Tyler put on a good impression of our Dad. "Kids these days have it way too easy. If we didn't learn to drive, we would have to walk 40 miles to work in 42 degree heat to earn 5 cents an hour, or catch a bus that only came every three hours and would only pick to stop us up if we were lucky."

I laughed at my brother's impersonation of our father as Tyler drove along Smith Street Motorway, intermittent rain splattering the windscreen. Looking out at the Hinterland, I saw lightning streaks up around the Mount Tambourine area.

We got onto the Pacific Motorway that would take us home to Brisbane, and the car despite being older than I was still had no problems driving at 100 kilometers on a wet night. I saw the exit signs for the popular theme parks in the area as we reached Helensvale, when all of a sudden a warning light flashed onto the car's dashboard.

I glanced over. "Tyler, what's wrong?" I asked.

My brother shook his head. "I don't know, but the steering feels funny. And listen to that."

The car definitely sounded strange, but just as quickly they stopped and the car's steering seemed normal, the engine sounded fine and the warning light went out.

"Strange," said the puzzled Tyler as he continued to drive and clearly hoping this was a freak occurrence, when another warning light came on. This time it was yellow, and warned that the car was low on fuel.

"That can't be right, I've got over half a tank of petrol," said Tyler, me looking at the gauge as well.

Tyler and I jumped as the car-backfired as loud as a gun-shot, and I felt my nerves rising as again the steering problems and strange noises from the engine came on again, Tyler struggling to control the vehicle.

"Quick, exit here!" I said, pointing at an upcoming exit, and Tyler did just this, the car's indicator showing that he was going right even though he set it for left, a passing car beeping him.

Off the motorway, problems continued on the exit that went through an underpass but unfortunately there was nowhere to stop, but then the car inexplicably went back to normal.

"Something strange is happening," said the perplexed Tyler as we drove through Helensvale.

"You're not kidding, pull over and let's see what's wrong," I said, more than a little freaked.

Tyler went to do just this, but as he did so the car seemed to take on a life of its own again. The headlights went to full beam without Tyler touching them, and even though he was slowing down, the accelerator seemed to get stuck full on.

The car sped forward, tyres screeching on the wet road, the vehicle going at increasing speed and defying all of Tyler's attempts to control it.

"Tyler, what's happening now?" I screamed, rigid in terror in my seat as the car continued to race up the road.

"I don't know, Matilda, I think the accelerator is stuck or something!" the freaked Tyler said as he tried pressing the clutch, brake and accelerator pedals in a desperate attempt to stop or slow the vehicle, which was now going at 120 kilometers per hour while over-revving violently.

In one way we were fortunate to be on an isolated back road with no other cars around, but roadside were numerous large eucalyptus trees, which would be pretty unforgiving if Tyler's car slammed into one of them at full speed.

I felt close to crying and peeing myself as all attempts by my brother to control his car seemed to fail, until inexplicably it slowed right down -- perhaps Tyler had managed to fix the jammed gas pedal. Tyler was able to turn off the high beams and get control of the steering, and with the indicators cooperating this time, was able to turn off the road and into a bus stop.

Tyler stopped, the car idling, and we sat recovering our breaths. Drops of rain fell onto the windscreen and Tyler put on the windscreen wipers.

"You okay Matilda?" Tyler asked.

"Can an 18-year-old girl die of a heart attack?" I quipped, my heart still racing. "What the fuck happened? I thought I was going to wet myself. That scared the shit out of me."