Kevin's Big Reveal

A flash story of just over 1400 words. Everyone is this story is over the age of consent. I'd like to thank Randi for her editorial help. However, I claim the ownership of any errors as mine.

"Oh, Kevin. I'm so sorry! I... we... never meant to hurt you. But Sam and I have just fallen for each other. I know my words will probably not mean much to you, but I am truly sorry."

Kevin looked at Sue, his wife of three years, and shook his head. "I guess I must have misread you, dear;" he snarled the word 'dear.' "I would never have guessed that you would be the kind of person to betray me with my own sibling. But, it is what it is and you are what you are; so, what's your plan? Anyway, where is Sam?"

"He, well, we thought it best if you and I talked this through without him being here, causing a distraction.

"I think a divorce would be the best idea so that we can all move on with our lives. What I am proposing is a simple 50/50 split. No alimony or anything, as I don't think that would be fair on you. After all, with what I earn and with what Sam pulls in, we'll be good for money."

"The house? What about the house?" asked Kevin.

"Well... I was thinking that Sam and I would keep the house and you could get an apartment somewhere?"

Kevin snorted. "Oh, sure. You and Sam get to keep the fucking house I slaved over, spent my money on, and worked on night and day to bring it up to a great standard so you and Sam can live a life of luxury whilst I get to live in a cheap, shitty apartment in a slum area of the inner city? Gee! Thanks!"

"Oh, honey! That's not what we want for you! What we hope is that you'll be able to get a nice apartment in a decent part of town. I mean, you could afford somewhere good on your salary, right?"

He shook his head. "Actually no, I don't think I would be able to. The only reason that we could afford this place," he made an all-encompassing gesture taking in the modest but decent house, "is because I did almost all of the remodelling work by myself and because we have both our incomes funding the property. On my single income, all I could afford would be a shitty apartment or a room somewhere found through Craigslist or Rooms To Let."

Sue looked sympathetic. "I must admit we hadn't thought of that. Maybe we can work something out?"

"I doubt that," Kevin replied. "Anyway, what happened to us? I thought we were good?"

"Oh, baby we are goo, or rather we were good. It's just that Sam and I fell for each other, very hard. We tried to hide it, to shy away from it, from falling in love with each other. But it just wasn't possible. I hope you can learn to understand this and to forgive us, but we fell in love together. Pretty much how you and I did, you know?" She sounded hopeful, almost as if she was willing Kevin to accept the shit sandwich she was offering him.

"Have you two '[love birds' slept together yet?"

"Oh, no! Of course not! I know what I, well we, Sam and I, are doing is going to break your heart, but I just felt it would have been wrong for us to sleep together before we got divorced. We've made out, yeah, but not had sex yet."

Kevin shrugged his shoulders. "Well, thanks for that consideration at least." He wasn't sure if Sue had spotted his sarcasm, but what the hell.

"Anyway, you'll make out okay, Kevin. Surely you will. You'll find some gorgeous woman to share your life with after we divorce. Then you, Sam and I will be able to sit down to a meal here with you and your new lady and have a great time together." She nodded her head as if that would make the ludicrous crap she was spewing out somehow more plausible.

"Really? You really think that I would be willing to bring a date here, to the house I built with all the love I had in my heart for you, to sit down at the fucking dining table I made from reclaimed wood with my new love, with you, my ex-wife and my treacherous, treasonable brother and play happy families? No! Fuck that, bitch! Ain't happening!"

Sue began to cry. "Please! Be reasonable! We have to find a way to go forward and head toward a new level of normal."

"My new level of normal will be living in a shitty apartment whilst my brother and my ex-wife live in my house. Not going to happen. We will divorce on my terms: I'll file for divorce and we will sell this house and we'll split the proceeds 50/50. Be reasonable my hairy arse!"

"But Kevin," she was starting to whine, now "this is a beautiful house. And I am hoping that Sam and I can raise our children in this house. Our house. And we'll love for you to be the Godfather to our children."

And then Kevin realised that this whole thing was a complete and utter shit show and that his stupid, formerly loving wife, had become like that old song made famous by The Hollies, 'King Midas in Reverse', because every piece of gold she touched was turning to shit. Only she had no way of knowing it, yet.

Kevin didn't know whether to laugh hysterically or to swear and shout at her.

He thought back over the relationship between himself and his brother Sam and their late religiously intolerant parents who had made his life and Sam's life such a nightmare.

Kevin had left home at 18, moving into the type of apartment he'd mentioned to Sue: a crappy place in a poor part of town, but he'd escaped and that was the main thing.

He had made sure that he was available to Sam, and eventually after one particularly fraught weekend, Sam had come knocking on the door of his apartment, the facial bruises a testimony that things had gotten way too bad at home.

He had never told Sue the full horrors of life at home, and he thought it important that he went through it now with her. He had realised that his parents had never really been religious in any meaningful sense of the word. They were just bloody unpleasant narcissistic psychos.

They'd eventually grown to hate Sam with a dreadful passion, and they'd thought they had good, valid reasons. Kevin knew their reasons, and whilst he hadn't shared them, he had understood them to a certain point.

He explained their fraught home life and how their parents had especially despised Sam.

"But why?" she asked, nonplussed. "Sam's a lovely person, I can't imagine anyone hating Sam."

She blushed "Oh! Well, maybe I can see why you might not exactly like Sam at the moment, but you can't hate him forever, because you'll be needed to be the Godfather to our children, when we have them. Oh, please say you will? I know you might think I'm trying to rub your nose in it, but I'm not! Honestly! It's just that I know you'll be a good Godfather and a great example of a fine, decent man to my children. Just as I know Sam will make a great father!"

Kevin shook his head. "I'll not be the godfather to your children, because Sam will never be able to father children. You see, I never told you why our parents beat Sam and threw Sam out of the house that last day.

"So here it is. Because until Sam was 16, Sam wasn't the shortened version of Samuel, it was the shortened version of Samantha. Unlike my parents, I had no problem with Samantha becoming Samuel, but you see, Sam cannot father children. What's galling to me is that I paid for Sam's gender reassignment surgery, including the metoidioplasty to create his penis from his clitoris and his testicular implants. And this is how he repays me?"

Sue looked horrified. She wasn't transphobic by any means, but she realised that she would have to have a long, serious talk with Sam later that day, because she now understood that Sam's betrayal of Kevin went to a level that was far deeper than she realised.

Kevin looked at her and voiced his earlier thoughts. "Sue, you are like that song by The Hollies. You are "King Midas In Reverse." Everything you touched has turned to shit."

She was silent, aside from the sobbing, because she knew Kevin was right.