Lisa

She climbed out of bed and slipped on her dressing gown and went downstairs to the little kitchen to prepare her breakfast: a bowl of light cereal and a coffee, and she carried them to the table where she would eat and watch the morning news. She saw Gideon's cell phone almost at once and realised that he would need it for his work; and so she picked it up and took it to the hallway ready for when he came back.

If the message had not come in at that moment, she would never have found out. She would have put the phone on the hall table and eaten her breakfast and gone upstairs to shower and change, smiling at his uncharacteristic forgetfulness; and by the time she came downstairs he would have collected it. But it chirped in her hand and the screen lit up and she could not help but look. A single message lay in the inbox:

Alone 2day. Can u help a lady in need?

The letters leapt out of the little glowing screen as if they were six foot tall and Hannah's heart lurched, as if someone had punched her in the gut. The phone told her the caller's name was Judy and the emoticon was a smiling face blowing kisses, and suddenly she knew her world would never be the same again.

She carried the phone to the kitchen and sat at the little table, her mind racing. Surely there was a simple explanation: it was a client who needed his professional help...a burst pipe or a leaking tap, perhaps. A woman just like her, waiting to get to work but with a disaster that needed a plumber to fix it. But the words were damning...alone today...alone today. No client would ever say that.

Hannah tried to quell the racing of her heart and think logically. She knew he would be back soon, running into the door in a flap to find his phone, his face red because he was now late for work. She accessed his address book and scrolled through it quickly, scanning the names. Many were people she knew or were businesses he used: JK Plumbing... Bunnings... Pipeworkz... Reece. But in the list were names she didn't know - women's names characterised by a single word: Cassie, Dora, Judy, June. Names of clients of a different kind, names that hinted of shame and betrayal; names that took her heart and wrung it until it bled drops of living blood in her heaving chest.

With trembling fingers Hannah returned to the original message and entered a reply. Sure. What did you have in mind today? An innocuous reply but enough to draw out more, if there was more to hear. She pressed the send button and waited.

The reply was all that she had feared, and with trembling hands she set the phone down and stared at the screen.

Everything, just like before. Kids gone by 9. I'll be upstairs naked. J xx

With a sinking heart Hannah typed another message, a collective one to the other girls in the address book: something that would tell her whether she should worry about them too - although, God knows, she had enough already. Her fingers hovered over the send button before pressing it.

Within an hour she knew beyond a shadow of doubt that her husband was a serial womanizer who had taken advantage of the lonely housewives available on his calls. She knew who he did and when, and she had a good idea of what he did to them too. And so she erased her messages and left the phone for him as she had found it, and she went to work and thought of what she might do to pay him back.

******

I expected Lisa to be up, but she didn't answer the tap on the door so I opened it quietly and stepped into the room. She was still in bed with her back to me and I stood for a moment looking at her. The room was dim: only the fading daylight from the little window illuminating it - a dull, grey light diffused by the rain streaking the window... but it was enough to see the spread of her hair against the white sheets and the shape of her body under the covers.

I crossed the room and sat on the far side of the bed, and she smiled at me: a small smile, but more than I'd seen in a while.

'Put the light on, if you like,' she said.

I clicked on the little bedside lamp and the room was illuminated in a soft glow, the shadows retreating to the corners of the room.

'You look cosy,' I said. 'Did you sleep?'

She nodded. 'Yes. I didn't expect to, but I dropped off straight away. How long have I been out?'

'A couple of hours.'

'God. I feel drugged. Better, though. I feel...better.'

'That's good.' I reached forward and brushed a comma of dark hair from her forehead. 'Do you feel up to a bite to eat?'

Lisa nodded. 'God, yes, I'm famished.'

'Good,' I repeated. 'I've made a booking for seven. 'Is that OK?'

'Sure.' She regarded me, her eyes calm. The dark bruises had faded from under her eyes and she looked more rested than any time over the last week. 'Is it still raining?' she asked at length.

'Yep. Pretty much non-stop. Not as heavy as before, but still full-on.'

'Do you think we'll get out of here tomorrow?'

'Only if it stops raining. There's a couple of creeks between here and your place that will take a while to go down. Are you in a hurry to get home?'

She shook her head. 'Not at all. I told work I'd be away for a week at least.'

'What about Chris? Won't he be expecting you?'

'Not really.' Her eyes slid away from mine. 'He's...away at the moment.'

'Really? Where?' I'd never known him to be away. Chris was the original Eglington Troll - born there, lived there, worked there and, I had no doubt, would die there. Even though there was two-thirds of fuck all in the place, even on a good day.

'With work. A work thing.' Lisa said. The tone of her voice suggested she didn't want to talk about it.

'Ah...well,' I glanced at my watch. 'We've got about an hour before dinner. I need to make a few calls, if you don't mind. If you want to use the bathroom first I could come back at - say, half past? Is that OK?'

She nodded. 'Sure.'

'Right.' On impulse I leaned forward and touched her face lightly. 'I'm glad you're feeling better, Lisa,' I said softly. 'I've been worried about you.' My fingers rested gently over her cheek and I could feel the glossy warmth of her skin.

For a moment there was a look of tenderness in her eyes but then her expression changed and she pulled away.

'I'm fine,' she said. 'You shouldn't worry.'

'Sometimes it's nice to have someone care.'

'Really?' she whispered. 'I guess I'd forgotten.'

*

The little dining room was crowded and noisy, but the young waitress showed us to a small table under the window in a relatively secluded corner of the room. She lit the candle and handed us a menu each. 'Do you want more drinks first?' she asked. 'I'll bring them and find out what's left on the menu.'

I ordered two more whiskeys and watched my sister as she settled herself and looked around the room. She'd put on a little black dress that hugged her curves and she'd spent time on her make up.

'You look good, Lisa.'

'Thank you,' she said. 'I wasn't expecting to socialise and only threw this dress in at the last moment. Does it look OK?'

'It's sensational.'

'You're just saying that because you're my brother.'

'Actually I'm not. You do look good, trust me. As a red blooded male I'm qualified to judge.'

Lisa nodded without responding but looked pleased. 'It's been a while since I went on a date,' she said at length.

'Is that what this is?'

'Well - no, but you know what I mean.'

'So doesn't your husband take you out?'

'Sure - but that's not a date either. Mostly it's to the local pub if we can't be bothered to cook at home. We don't dress up for that.'

'Doesn't he cook?'

She shook her head. 'I do everything in the house and he brings in the money.'

'But don't you work as well?'

'Yeah, but apparently that's not the same.' She shrugged. 'You get into a routine...it's not a big deal.' She looked around the room. 'Interesting crowd in here.'

'I noticed when I came in - half local, half rich kids.'

She smiled. 'And us. We don't fit either category.'

'No. A couple of outcasts. I...ah, here's the waitress. Have you chosen what you want?'

'A steak will do me. Medium - with salad.'

The girl brought our drinks and I watched as she carefully wrote our order down before scurrying away. I raised my glass to Lisa.

'Well, here's to us. To happier times.'

She sipped her Scotch and regarded me for a moment. 'Did you mean what you said?'

'About happier times? Absolutely.'

'No... about being outcasts.'

'We've been outcasts for six years, Lisa.'

Her eyes flickered over mine. 'I figured it was only me who thought that.'

'Really? We were both punished, you know, one way or the other. No doubt our dear parents thought it was character-building, but for me it just sucked.' I sipped my drink. 'You know, I've thought all these years that you blame me for what we did.'

Lisa stared at me. 'I've never blamed you for one moment,' she said simply 'I wanted it as much as you - perhaps even more.' She shook her head to emphasise the point. 'No, it wasn't you...it was them. The way they punished us... it was like having this constant shadow hanging over us...watching everything we did or said, where we went and who we met. I sometimes used to wonder how they did that - you know, it wasn't like we were kids anymore. I used to dream about telling them to fuck off and let us live our lives, but I never did.' She smiled ruefully. 'I guess parental authority is deep rooted.'

'But getting married must have helped.'

'I suppose.' She laughed. 'Do you remember the wedding? Mum wouldn't let me invite more than five people so she could watch us and even then she wouldn't leave me alone with you for one second. Even going down the aisle she followed us. She must have thought you were going to leap out of the congregation to jump my bones.'

I laughed with her. 'Dad watched me like a hawk too. I had that skinny girl with me - what was her name? Cindy? Cynthia? Whatever. I think he figured she was just a cover and I was secretly planning to drag you to into the transept for a quick blowjob or something. If it weren't so tragic it would have been funny. They were pretty sad people.'

Lisa took another sip of her drink. 'We should have done it, you know.'

'Done what?'

'A blow-job in the church. You did owe me one.'

The vision of Lisa's face with my cum dripping over it suddenly popped into my mind. I'd often wondered what would have happened if the parents hadn't come home...would it have stopped with my eating her out, or would it have gone even further? She'd been ready, that was for sure, and I had been too. And if we'd done it, how would it have changed our lives? Would we have lost those six years? Would we be apart or together?

Lisa's voice interrupted my thoughts. 'So what are you thinking?'

'I was wondering how our lives would have been different if they hadn't come home that night.'

She nodded. 'I sometimes wonder that too. I doubt I'd have married Chris, for a start.'

'Really?'

'I think so. I guess he was just an easy way to get the hell out of home, you know...so I took it. I was young and stupid then.'

'But you're happy now, aren't you?'

She caught the waitress's eye to order another round of drinks and waited until they arrived before she spoke again. 'I guess a better word would be to say I'm content. I know he's not the most exciting guy in the universe and we have our ups and downs but he's honest and hard working and I won't cheat on him.'

'I'm glad to hear that.' I wasn't, but it seemed a good thing to say.

'Are you? I got the impression you didn't care for him much.'

I shrugged. 'I don't mind him, but we really don't have much in common. And he took my little sister away.'

She laughed. 'Somebody was always going to do that. We couldn't have spent the rest of our lives together.'

'Maybe not. But we were pretty close, Sis. Do you remember how we used to do everything together? You and I were inseparable, and I've never found anybody to replace that. I sort of figured Chris filled that space for you, and I was jealous...I am jealous.'

Lisa sat back in her chair and regarded me. 'Well, well! I would never picked that, Mr. Roberts. You, jealous? I didn't think you had a jealous bone in your body!'

'Jealous is good. It means I care for you a lot...maybe more than anyone else.'

Her expression softened. 'That's a really sweet thing to say - and you're right, we haven't seen much of each other in the last few years but you shouldn't take that as meaning anything...it was just the way it was.' She lapsed into silence and I could see her thinking, wondering if she should say more, wondering if it was better left unsaid. 'You know we've never spoken of that night,' she continued suddenly, 'but I want you to know I've never forgotten it.'

'But do you regret it?' I asked softly.

Her eyes met mine, lingering for a moment while she thought about the answer. 'Never,' she said. 'At least, not insofar as what we did. I regret our parents treated us like shit for the next six years, and I regret a bunch of things that happened because of that...but I've never been sorry for doing it, not for one moment.'

'To be fair, it must have been a hell of a shock seeing us like that.'

Lisa shrugged. 'Maybe, but they took a sledgehammer to our lives and there was no need. They turned into truly miserable people whose only joy was to make our lives miserable too.' She took a mouthful of her drink and I could see her thinking, remembering. 'When Mum died I thought things might change, you know, but they didn't. Pa was just as bad...worse, maybe.' She shook her head. 'How did he do that, Mike? How could one miserable old bastard cast such a shadow on our lives?'

'Stuffed if I know. I ask the same question myself.'

'I'm glad he's gone!' she said. She stared at me almost defiantly as if she expected me to challenge her words, but I didn't and her voice changed. 'If only they could have seen that night for what it was,' she said. 'None of what happened would have been necessary.'

'So what was it, Lisa?'

She took another mouthful of whiskey whilst she considered the question. 'I was a pretty bad girl in those days you know, and I don't mind admitting it. I liked guys and I liked what they did to me. I could have filled a book with my escapades.' She giggled softly. 'In fact I did...I had a diary, full of interesting little stories. If they'd found that they would have had something to be pissed about. Maybe I'll show it to you one day, when we're old and grey.' She regarded me almost shyly. 'But with you - with you it was much more than that.' Her eyes flickered over mine, the irises like warm chocolate. 'I would have gone the whole way, you know. I couldn't wait to get you inside me.'

'You weren't bothered about me being your brother?'

'No more than you were bothered about me being your sister.' She smiled. 'The sibling thing was part of the excitement, you know. The thrill of doing the forbidden. It's like shagging your best friend's husband whilst you're on the phone to her talking about going shopping.' She looked at me, her eyes bright. 'But I guess if I was honest it was more than that. It was -' she broke off as the waitress appeared with our meals and we waited in silence whilst she served us.

'So you were saying?' I asked, after she'd gone.

Lisa picked up her fork and regarded the steak on her plate. 'You were special,' she said, simply. 'You were you. I can't say more than that.'

'So special that you ran off and got married and hardly spoke to me for four years?'

'It just happened, Mike. Don't take it personally.'

We ate for a while, each thinking of the past but afraid to talk about the future. Perhaps that had been the problem all along - that and the business of getting on with our lives without thinking too hard about where we were going. I glanced at her face: the firm line of her jaw and the soft curl of her lips and the dark pools of her eyes, and I realised again how beautiful she was.

'So what now?' I asked her.

'Now? Well, now our parents are dead and we'll inherit their house.' She giggled. 'Maybe we should excise the demons by going back to finish the job. It would be a fitting end to that part of our lives, don't you think? We could put a big sign on the window: 'Siblings fucking to unfuck their fucked lives.'

I laughed. 'That would impress the neighbours. So when do you want to do it?'

She gave me a sharp glance. 'Hey, I was joking, right? Don't take it as an invitation.'

'It's not a bad idea, though.'

'Really?' she held up her left hand and the candlelight winked off the gold band. 'Aren't you forgetting something?'

'You said you have your ups and downs.'

Lisa put her hand down. 'And I also said I wouldn't cheat on him, and I think sleeping with my brother would be inconsistent with that notion.'

'Sleep was the last thing I had in mind. Besides, sometimes you have to step outside a relationship to see what's good about it.'

Lisa laughed 'That's complete bollocks, and you know it. Nice try, though.'

'So what is next?'

'We get on with our lives and we see where they take us.' She reached over and grasped my arm. 'But I promise we'll be closer than in the past, Mike. I need a friend and God knows, so do you.'

A friend. Well, I suppose it was better than not being her friend, but at that moment it wasn't nearly enough. As I said, some things you never forget.

*

It was after midnight when we went to bed. We'd had a nice dessert and then gone to the bar where she'd drunk a few more whiskeys and talked a lot of stuff she wouldn't remember in the morning, and then we staggered up the stairs. Well, Lisa had staggered. I'd felt surprisingly clear headed, which is just as well as she was clearly not. I steered her into the room and sat her on the bed, and she'd just flopped backwards with her eyes closed.

I thought she'd passed out, but after a moment she started talking in a loud voice.

'You're a good guy, Mikey...a good guy.' The words were slurred, but they brought back sudden memories. She'd not called me Mikey for years.

'Shhhh, Lisa. People are trying to sleep.'

'Ah, shorry.' She giggled. 'I'm a bit pisshed.'

'I can see.'

'Fuck 'em, Mikey! Fuck our parents for what they did.' A stage whisper.

'Indeed.' I unzipped her boots and pulled them off. 'Roll over, Lisa, and let me take off your dress.'

She stared at me for a few moments, her pupils dilated by drink, but then shrugged and rolled on to her belly. I grasped the zip and slid it down, staring at the creamy smoothness of her back.

'You're a good guy,' she said again. Her voice was muffled. 'Not like...them.'

I rolled her onto her back and threaded her arms through the sleeves and pulled the dress clear, and she flopped back onto the mattress with her eyes closed. Her breasts were held in a little half cup bra, round and perfect, and the nipples peeped from the lacy edge like little ripe gooseberries.

'Are you going to fu..fuck me, Mikey?' she asked suddenly.

'Not tonight, honey.' Little white panties, stretched tight over her mound. A wisp of hair peeping from one side, and the hint of dark lips pressed against the fabric. I could feel my cock stiffening. She was so beautiful, even when she was hammered.

'I want...wanted to,' she said petulantly. 'I waited, and waited...' her voice trailed off and she closed her eyes, and I sat on the bed beside her and touched her hair, smoothing it back, feeling the glossy strands under my fingers. It would have been so easy to take her then...to move aside the gusset of those tight little knickers and press myself into her; to feel the molten clasp of her cunt as my cock slid in.