My Sister, A Modern Rapunzel

Dad left, and I made the trek upstairs to brush my teeth. I still did most of my bathroom stuff up there. When I was done, I turned off the bathroom light and sneaked into Susanna's bedroom. She was sleeping peacefully. I thought of her covering my face with kisses when I tucked her in. I smiled at the happy memory.

* * * *

Sunday, May 22nd
The next morning, it was easier to start a fight with my mother than I had ever imagined. I got up earlier than I needed to and went to the kitchen about the time my parents and Susanna ate breakfast. Mom and Dad were there, but not Susanna. When I sat down at the dinner table, Mom said, "Last night, I talked with Mrs. Parker, Caroline's mom."

Caroline was one of my sister's classmates. "Caroline is going to be Susanna's roommate in the dorms, right?"

"That was what we discussed last night. The dorms have so many young people packed tightly together that diseases like Covid spread like wildfire there."

I didn't like the sound of this. "And they're also the best place to make friends. Most of my friends are people I met in the dorms. It's much harder to get to know people in class."

"I'm sure Susanna will make lots of friends." That sounded false to me as Mom hadn't let Susanna have much of a chance to make friends in high school. "And you have decided to not live in the dorms this year."

I didn't see what that had to do with anything. "I don't need to live in the dorms because I've already made lots of friends. Susanna needs to live in the dorms to make friends."

"Mrs. Parker expressed lots of concerns about Caroline living in the dorms. What we agreed to was that you'd get a two-bedroom apartment, Caroline and Susanna would be in one bedroom, and you and your roommate would be in the other."

"No way, Mom! No way!" I said angrily. "I'm not sharing a room with a guy again. I'm sick of not having any privacy." My roommate Kenneth and I both had girlfriends in the dorms last year, and neither one of us could get enough alone time with our girlfriend. But it was far bigger than that - I wanted to be able to do whatever I wanted in my room like watching porn without worrying about my roommate walking in. "I've grown out of living in the dorms. Almost everyone does. I'm an adult now. I'm ready to live in an apartment, make my own meals, and have my own bedroom like I've had most of my life."

"Luke, your father and I spend so much on you."

Mom pulling out this line made me even angrier. "You aren't paying a thing for my next year at college." They had told me a while back that they wouldn't be helping me financially this year as they'd be helping Susanna. "So I'm going to do what I WANT to do this year because I'm the one paying for everything. If you want Caroline and Susanna to get an apartment together; fine. But leave me out of this."

Mom's face turned a bright red. "Don't talk to me like that, young man. We are feeding you and putting a roof over your head this summer."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Susanna come into the kitchen. She was walking gingerly with her head down.

"And this summer, I'm following your rules. But when I go off to college, I'm doing what I want."

Mom pulled herself up indignantly. "You should be grateful for the support your father and I give you. Next Saturday, you and your father are going to be rebuilding the flower beds. The railroad ties have badly deteriorated."

I rolled my eyes. Another of my weekend days off would be taken up by doing grunt labor. I looked at my dad. He was staring intently at his plate. He wasn't going to save my Saturday. "That's a huge project, Mom. Don't you think you should hire a landscaper so it's done right?"

"I have faith in you and your father. And if it takes two Saturdays, so be it. Some hard work would be good for you. Hopefully, it'll improve your attitude."

Mom and I argued until it was time for her, Dad, and Susanna to go to church. Susanna ate her breakfast on a counter far from the dining table. I was sure that Mom and Dad didn't notice that she was nursing a hangover. I stood firm that I would not share a bedroom. In the end, Mom pronounced that I'd still share an apartment with Caroline and Susanna, but I'd have a bedroom to myself.

* * * *

Monday, May 23rd
The next morning, I came out of my bedroom after I heard my parents leave the house. I knew that Mom wanted me to have breakfast with her and Dad, but after yesterday's disaster, I decided to go back to waiting until they left before coming out. Susanna was in the kitchen when I entered it. She jumped up from the table and raced over to me. She almost crashed into me as she hugged me, and then she kissed my cheeks four times. I laughed. "And good morning to you too."

"I'm still really grateful for all you did for me Saturday night." Susanna held out some bills. "Here's the money I borrowed for the bikini."

I took it. "Thanks." I folded them and stuck them in my pocket. "Do you need me to take you to Walmart to get your contact lenses?"

"No. There's no point in getting them now. I don't want Mom to find them and demand to know how I paid for them."

I got a bagel and began cutting it in two. "Babysitting?"

Susanna shook her head. "Before Mom will let me babysit, she demands to know how I'm going to spend the money. I need to pick something big, make out a plan for earning the money for it and what I'll do once I have the money, and then give her progress reports on my project. That's how I bought my sewing machine. No way could I have saved up enough money for contacts without her knowing about it."

"And saving up for contacts isn't an acceptable project?"

"You guessed it. 'Don't waste your money on contacts. Those glasses are perfectly fine.' Besides, there's no one here I want to see with contacts on instead of my ugly glasses."

I felt awful for Susanna, but there wasn't much I could do about it. "I did my best to convince Mom to let you live in the dorms. She wouldn't listen to me."

"You used the wrong argument. When you told Mom that it'd be much harder for me to make friends if I lived in an apartment, you were only supporting her idea. She wants to make it as hard as possible for me to meet boys."

I put my bagel into the toaster and started toasting it. "What's Caroline like?"

"She's okay. A little on the ditzy side. She can't keep a secret. She doesn't mean to gossip; she just gets so excited about things that she shares things she shouldn't."

"Great. So if I have my girlfriend spend the night, it'll get back to Mom."

"Probably. But what do you care? You made it clear to Mom that you're going to do what you want regardless of what she wants. Any luck on deciding what your senior thesis is going to be?"

"No. I want it to be different. I want it to address an issue that economists overlook."

"What kind of issue?"

I sat down at the dining table. "Let me tell you what a professor said in one of my economics classes. One percent of the US workforce works at Walmart. As they have a high turnover, a significant portion of the US workforce has worked there at some point in their life. And yet, when the professor who told us that asked us to raise our hand if we had a family member who was working at Walmart, no one did. Ditto when he asked if we had a family member who had worked at Walmart or if we knew anyone who had worked at Walmart. My fellow economics students and I are all from a middle-class or better background. Because we don't know any of the working poor, we don't know any of their problems. So I'd like to do a senior thesis on an idea that will improve the lives of the working poor."

The toaster beeped, and I got up to get my bagel. I buttered it and sat back down. Susanna said, "And it's hard to think of such an idea because you don't know what it's like to be a working poor?"

"Correct. I was hoping my job at the lube place would introduce me to some working poor, but it's all young guys who are working there until they find a better job."

"Aren't there some ideas already for helping the working poor?"

"Oh yeah. The two big ones are a higher minimum wage and an EITC."

"What's an EITC?"

"Earned Income Tax Credit. It's like a reverse income tax. Let's say the minimum wage was raised to fifteen dollars an hour. The federal government could then give minimum wage workers an EITC of three dollars an hour, making their tax home pay effectively eighteen dollars an hour. The more you make over the minimum wage, the less of an EITC you get until it disappears."

"That sounds good. But what are the downsides to a higher minimum wage and an EITC?"

"A higher minimum wage is as close as you can get in economics to a free lunch. The basic economic theory is that if you raise the cost of a good, the demand for it decreases. But that doesn't seem to apply to labor and a higher minimum wage. Small businesses make less profit, but they don't go bankrupt in droves. A higher minimum wage cuts government spending because state and local governments have programs that effectively make up the difference between the minimum wage and a living wage. The working poor have more dignity because they aren't directly dependent on the government. I'd like to come up with some government program that benefits the poor without making them feel like they are getting handouts from the government."

"That sounds like a worthwhile goal. How about you do some research by us going to Goodwill? Now that we're going to be sharing an apartment, we should see what household items we can pick up there. And I'd like to look at clothes there."

I was a little surprised that Susanna would want to buy clothes at Goodwill, but what did I know about shopping for women's clothes? "Sounds good."

* * * *

At Goodwill, I spent my time in the household section writing down everything they had and its price. I didn't feel comfortable enough about what was a good price for used household items to buy anything. They had a dozen pieces of furniture. I wrote down what they were and their prices. I'd check Craigslist later for comparable deals. Susanna was still in women's clothing. Despite me taking my sweet time, she still wasn't done. I wandered the store for what seemed a ridiculous amount of time until she was ready. She didn't buy anything. "Just getting an idea of what's available. Now that I've got some money, I want to spend it wisely."

When we got in the car, Susanna asked, "Can we please stop at the grocery store on the way home?"

"Sure." I didn't have anything else planned for the day. "You want to get lunch while we're out?"

"No. I'm going to make you lunch as a thank you. And I'll make a surprise too."

"Really? You don't have to."

"I want to. Mom has been having me cook dinners this school year. Simple meals. She said it was so I'd be ready when I moved into an apartment. I think it was because she wanted someone else to cook dinner. She never had you cook meals so you'd be ready when you moved into an apartment."

"No, she did not." I was planning on buying lots of microwaveable meals when I moved into my apartment.

"Can I ask you something personal?"

"You can ask."

"Why were you watching the video you were when I walked in on you? You could have been watching anything. Why a bikini try-on video?"

"Mom has a content blocker on the router. I can't pull up porn on the home network, but I can pull up YouTube."

"But you could have used your phone. You could have watched a movie you had downloaded at school. You had lots of options, but you picked one that had no nudity. Why?"

"I'm not comfortable talking about such things with my sister."

"Come on, Luke. You aren't going to offend me. I'm not going to think worse of you. You can use bad language; it won't bother me. It's important to me."

I thought for a moment. If she wasn't going to be offended or think worse of me, I couldn't see the harm. "Okay." I shifted a bit as I planned what I was going to say. "Have you seen any porn?"

"A little. A few times at sleepovers, a girl played a clip on her phone. We laughed at how stupid and gross it was."

"Okay. The women in porn are sluts. I don't mean they are personally, but they're asked to play sluts. They are like, 'Nice to meet you', and then drop to their knees and start undoing the guy's pants. They have no personality. They just put out at the drop of a hat. Such women don't appeal to me. So, I started watching try-on videos. The ones I like are the ones where the girl makes it feel like we're in the flirting stage of the relationship; that I'm on my way to being her boyfriend. I can then use my imagination of what it'd be like when the video stops. I enjoy getting off to videos where the girl makes me want to have sex with her. The girls in porn don't do that for me."

"I see. That makes sense. So you don't watch porn?"

I laughed. "I still watch porn. It just depends on the mood I'm in. But I spend more time watching try-on videos than I do porn." I usually only watched porn when I was in the mood for a quick wank.

Susanna nodded her head. "Thanks for answering honestly."

* * * *

When we got home, Susanna made guacamole, which we ate with chips. After that appetizer, she made tacos.

"That was really good, Susanna."

Susanna blushed slightly. "Both were easy to make."

"They were easy for you because you've developed cooking skills. I would have struggled to make them. More importantly, I wouldn't have thought of making them. If you hadn't made lunch and there weren't any leftovers I could heat up, I would have gone to some fast-food place."

"Thanks. When Mom told me she wanted me to start cooking, I wasn't happy, but I've learned to like cooking. I enjoy creating a good-tasting meal from basic ingredients." Susanna stood up. "Now it's time to start on the surprise. I'm going to make you a fruit tart. Would you go out to your car, please? I'd like you to do two things - hide my money in your car so Mom can't find it and bring in my bikini."

"Bring in your bikini?" I definitely could see keeping Susanna's money in my car as it'd be a disaster if Mom found it, but I didn't see a reason to bring in the bikini.

"Yes. I made this fruit tart once for a church potluck, and I got flour all over my clothes. I'll wear my bikini while I make it and then take a shower when I'm done with the messy part."

"Okay."

Susanna left, went upstairs, and came back holding an envelope, which she gave me. I tossed it into a day pack where I had already put some tape. I went out to my car, taped her envelope on the back side of my glove box next to my envelope of cash, put her bikini into my day pack, and came back in. I gave Susanna her bikini and then went into my room to chill.

A few minutes later, Susanna knocked on my door. "Would you keep me company while I make the tart?"

"Sure." It seemed the least I could do.

When we got to the kitchen, Susanna already had several ingredients laid out on the kitchen island. She took off her glasses, set them aside, and then started measuring the flour. I asked teasingly, "So the thing you look for in a guy is a good time?"

"Oh, that!" Susanna laughed nervously. "They gave us questions to answer. They said to make them sexy but not dirty." Susanna dumped the flour into a pile on the island. "I didn't know what to say for that one." She pushed the flour into a ring. "I've never had a boyfriend. The most I've done is sneak away with a boy to kiss at a couple of Christian summer camps." Susanna started cutting pieces of butter and putting them in the center of the flour ring. "Mom won't let me date. The only time she'll let me talk to boys is at church, and that's always supervised." Susanna started measuring out sugar. "What do you look for in a girl?"

I hadn't expected Susanna to put me on the spot. "That she's pretty. And she's smart. Someone I enjoy talking with. Someone who has a lot of interesting things to say."

Susanna dumped the sugar into the center of the flour ring. She grabbed an egg, cracked it, and then dropped its contents into the center of the flour ring. "Do you date other economics majors?"

"No. I dated one freshman year, but I've dated other majors since. I enjoy hearing about the things people learn in other majors. And sometimes, I can apply what they've said to economics."

Susanna added another egg to the center of the flour ring. "How so?"

"In 546, the Ostrogoths sacked Rome. When they left, the city that once had over a million inhabitants was reduced to a few hundred inhabitants. Dogs and pigs roamed wild through the streets. Western Europe became a bunch of small kingdoms ruled by former barbarians. Urban life collapsed across the continent. Technology was very primitive. Few people could read. The people of Britain thought the abandoned cities built during Roman rule were built by giants because the buildings were so much bigger than what they could build. Almost every other part of the world had a large empire that was technologically more advanced than the little kingdoms of Western Europe. But in a thousand years, Western Europe would be vastly superior technologically to the rest of the world and would shortly militarily and economically dominate the globe. One of the big questions in economics is: Why did Western Europe surpass the rest of the world?"

Susanna stuck her hands into the flour ring and began squeezing the ingredients between her fingers. She bent forward as she did so, giving me a great view down her bikini top. Her fingers quickly got coated in dough. She quickly developed a back-and-forth action, squishing the dough with her fingers until it was flat, flipping the dough over, and then forming it back into a ball. Every time she did that, her tits jiggled massively. I was mesmerized watching her. I couldn't help wondering if her tits would pop out of the puny restraint of her bikini top.

"So why?" asked Susanna. "Was it Christianity?"

I had completely lost my train of thought. It took me a few moments to say, "No, it wasn't Christianity. The Eastern Roman Empire which was Christian didn't become a world power. It was finally conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the fifteenth century."

Susanna worked the dough even more vigorously, making her tits shake even more. She regularly put flour down on the island and rolled the ball in the flour. As she did so, some of the flour would rise into the air. As she leaned forward, the flour dust would coat her chest.

"So what was it?"

I couldn't pull my eyes away from Susanna's chest. "I dated a girl last year who's getting a joint degree from the History and Religion departments. From talking with her, I think it was because of indulgences."

"Indulgences?"

"Indulgences are basically the pre-forgiveness of sin. You do some big good deed, and you can then apply the goodness from that to offset the badness of sins you commit later. At first, the big good deeds were giving lots of money to the church and going on pilgrimages and crusades. But later, it became donating to building a hospital or a bridge."

Susanna kept working the dough. She was sweating lightly now. She stood up, and as she did so, a little drop of sweat ran down her chest, through the flour, and into her top.

"So what?"

"Let me finish. Later, the Western Christian church came up with the idea of Purgatory. When non-Christians died, they went straight to Hell. When Christians died, they went to Purgatory to work off their sins. Once your sins were worked off, you'd go to Heaven. Indulgences became a way of reducing your time in Purgatory. You could also pray for the souls of friends and family in Purgatory, speeding them to Heaven."

"Where did they get the idea of Purgatory?"

"I don't know."

Susanna resumed working the dough. "Sounds like nonsense to me."